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QE mathematicians have qualified for the knockout stages of a prestigious regional competition.

“The Hans Woyda Mathematics Competition is renowned for being highly intellectually demanding; to be successful, boys have to be adept at applying a wide range of mathematical skills under time pressure,” said Mathematics teacher Geoff Roberts.

The aim of the annual contest is to get students of differing ages discussing and working co-operatively to solve mathematical problems which push the borders of the syllabus.

The initial group stage of the competition involves 64 teams from across the South Eastern Region; each school competes against three other local schools in a round-robin format.

The QE team of Nitharsan Sathiyalingham, of Year 9, Bhavik Mehta, of Year 11, Gabriel Gendler, of Year 12, and Rahul Mukerjee, of Year 13 (pictured below, left to right), go through to the next stage after comprehensively beating Highgate School, Channing School and St Michael’s School in the group stage.

 “To win against three very strong schools, and indeed achieve the highest score of all 64 schools competing in round 1 and the second highest in round 2 in the group stage, is highly pleasing and an excellent achievement by the boys involved.”

The format requires aptitude both in mental mathematics and in the use of a calculator; it involves individual and team questions. The boys are now anticipating the knock-out stages later in 2013.

Year 7 saxophonist John Tan played for The Princess Royal and was then formally presented to her at a special charity event at St James’s Palace.

John was invited to play at The Not Forgotten Association’s Christmas party in front of an audience that included not only the Princess, but also Dame Vera Lynn, Honor Blackman and Esther Rantzen.

The Not Forgotten Association is a national tri-service charity which provides entertainment, leisure and recreation for the serving wounded, injured or sick, and for ex-service men and women with disabilities. Each year, the charity helps and supports approximately 10,000 people of all ages.

“It was a great honour for John to be invited to participate,” said his father Lee Tan. “He did really well and ‘wowed’ the audience.” John was introduced on stage by the disc jockey and celebrity, Tony Blackburn, who described him as “fantastic, with a terrific future in front of him”. He was also endorsed by actor and comedian Nigel Planer.

John appeared as part of an eclectic programme which included a brass quintet from the Band of the Coldstream Guards, top swing and jive band, The Jive Aces, and actors Simon Williams & Lucy Fleming. He was invited to take part after being named as one of the winners at Big One Talent – a talent competition at Blackpool Pleasure Beach in August.

The invitation came from Dougie Squires, a leading figure in the arts world who has worked extensively for the Royal Family. Mr Squires’ business partner, Antony Johns, is a director of Pleasure Beach Blackpool-Stageworks Worldwide Productions and was a judge in the competition.

John attended St James’s Palace at lunchtime for a rehearsal and sound check. The concert itself took place in the afternoon and afterwards the performers were presented to The Princess Royal.

A group of Year 13 students have successfully negotiated their way through the first round of a highly prestigious Economics competition. It is only the second time that a team from QE has progressed to the second round of the Bank of England/The Times Target 2.0 competition in the 13 years that it has been running.

“The competition is acknowledged as one of the most rigorous and academically challenging in the country,” said Economics teacher Michael Feven. “It really tests students’ understanding of monetary policy and the issues facing the UK economy at present. It’s incredibly tough to secure a place in the competition and the boys have done very well to get through to the next stage.”

Within the team, five members undertook research and four prepared a presentation on the topic of the base rate of interest and the Bank of England’s quantitative easing policy. The QE team decided on a policy of no change – keeping the base rate at 0.5% and quantitative easing at £375bn.

Competing against six other schools from the South East region (Luton heat), the team then had to perform a 15-minute presentation of their recommendations to a panel of judges at the Putteridge Bury Conference Centre in Luton. This was followed by a 15-minute question-and-answer session.

The group of ten boys all played their part in the team's success: the presenters were Rihen Dewan, Shane Mahen, Jeffrey Xiao and Neil Gujar; the researchers were Atif Jeelani, Alex Du, Cheuk Hei Au, Chandi Uduwawala and Ronak Shah; and Matthew Chew provided IT and technical support which ensured that the presentation contained appropriate graphics and animation of a very high standard (all boys are pictured above right). The team now progress to the area finals in February 2013. The format remains the same, although the team will need to consider changes in their presentation to reflect activity in the UK economy.

QE’s Year 7 Chess Tournament attracted a record number of entries as well as a high-quality field. The event was won by Asad Shah, who finished the tournament undefeated, scoring 6.5 points, with six wins and one draw. He was pushed to the end by Samuel Wong, Darshan Patel and David Sandu, who each scored 6.

This year, the 72 entrants were assisted by Year 12 students Madhi Elango, Kiran Modi and Rushil Sajip, who acted as arbiters as well as providing coaching to the younger boys in between rounds.

“I am very pleased to see such a large group of able and enthusiastic chess players developing in Year 7,” said teacher Geoff Roberts, who leads chess at QE. “It was especially pleasing to see the high standard of chess being played by so many of the competitors at an early stage in their school careers. The Year 7 boys undoubtedly enjoyed the coaching and advice from Sixth Form boys who have, themselves, been successful at chess over many years.”

Four boys from Year 12 narrowly missed out on first place in a regional Team Maths Challenge, finishing second from 38 teams. In a closely fought competition, Highgate School pipped QE for the top spot, while Henrietta Barnett School and St Paul’s School shared third place.

QE’s team of Gabriel Gendler, Madhi Elango, Abhishek Mukherjee and Aniruddh Raghu (pictured below, left to right) scored 152 out of a possible 176 in the Senior Team Maths Challenge at the Camden Centre in King’s Cross. The competition combined mathematical, communication and teamwork skills; it was aimed at offering pupils the opportunity to express and develop their enjoyment of Mathematics.

“Although the boys were understandably disappointed at missing out so narrowly on victory, they nevertheless thoroughly enjoyed the experience of competing against other talented mathematicians.” said Mathematics teacher, Wendy Fung.

Queen Elizabeth’s School has the best A-level results in the country, according to new-style Government league tables.

This year, the tables show how many students achieved the new benchmark of two A grades and a B in core academic subjects. Publication of the new league tables follows research by the Russell Group of leading universities, which showed that students taking what it calls ‘facilitating subjects’ were much more likely to win places. These subjects are: Mathematics and Further Mathematics, English Literature, Physics, Biology, Chemistry, Geography, History and modern and classical languages.

By this measure, QE was the best-performing state school in England, with 65 per cent of pupils reaching the benchmark.

The other state schools in the top ten were Colchester Royal Grammar School in Essex and The Henrietta Barnett School in London, with 63% and 61% respectively. QE was in fourth place overall, behind three independent schools – Magdalen College School, Oxford, and St Paul’s Girls’ School, London, both with 70%, and Concord College in Shrewsbury with 66%. Three-quarters of the 200 leading schools nationally were from the independent sector.

Last summer, QE recorded its best-ever A-level results. For the first time, the proportion of A*, A and B grades achieved at the School rose above 98%, reaching 98.5% – up from 97.7 % in 2011. A large majority of boys gained places at Russell Group universities, including 25 with places at Oxford or Cambridge.

Welcoming the new league tables’ findings, QE Headmaster Neil Enright said: “Our boys’ very considerable achievements in public examinations are the result of their combining academic ability with sustained hard work. In this, they are supported by our very able and dedicated staff.

“I am pleased that the league tables have been strengthened by the new emphasis on core academic subjects and, of course, gratified that they have confirmed the excellent performance of QE pupils in 2012.”

More widely, the data published by the Government on the 2012 A-level results show an overall drop in the pass rate. The percentage of students who achieved passes equivalent to at least two A-levels decreased from 94.1% to 93.6% in 12 months. The proportion with three or more A*/A passes was down from 13.1% to 12.8%.