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Four Year 12 boys will be among 1,300 pupils from across the country taking part in a prestigious annual engineering competition this year.

Ife Adepegba, Rushab Badiani, Saad Hamid and Michael Zhao (pictured below, left to right) are being sponsored in the Engineering Education Scheme (EES) by local housing specialist Lovell.

QE has a history of success in the EES, which is run annually by the Engineering Development Trust. It introduces Sixth-Formers to the world of engineering and promotes links between participating schools and sponsoring local companies. The scheme also aims to attract more young people into the industry, which faces a chronic skills shortage and needs to double its graduate population by 2020.

Lovell engineers have given the QE team the task of designing a system or product that reduces the amount of ambient noise generated by metal cutting blades and sawing equipment on a construction site. The design brief stipulates that the solution should reduce noise on the construction site to safe levels, while still allowing all sizes of building materials to be cut.

The team has already been on a three-day residential workshop at Cambridge University, where they attended engineering lectures and worked with Lovell engineers and the university’s technical team to clarify their concepts and test their design.

The boys have a tough act to follow: last year’s QE team of Burhan Ashraf, Karan Dewnani, Christopher Wong and Sachin Leelasena were awarded the highest score ever recorded by the EES in the scheme’s 12-year history for their ideas for rescuing incapacitated operators trapped in the seat of a tower crane. Three of the four went on to present their ideas to some of the UK’s leading construction industry organisations, crane operators and health and safety groups, who have expressed an interest in taking their idea to the production stage and sponsoring the students’ university studies.

Six QE boys joined a congregation of former and current pupils from their primary school to celebrate its 200th anniversary at a special service in St Paul’s Cathedral.

Omar Tamani of Year 7, Year 9s Hamza Bharmal and Jason Chen, Reuben Chacko of Year 11 and Year 13 students Adam Bharmal and Nayan Patel were all pupils at St Mary’s Primary School in Finchley. QE Senior Year Head Alexandra Pearson accompanied them to the special bicentenary service of thanksgiving in Wren’s English Baroque masterpiece.

The service included hymns, readings, prayers and a procession of current St Mary’s pupils bearing banners. The children then outlined the history of the school from its founding as a parish school in 1812, in a private house in Hendon Lane with just 15 pupils. Over 200 years the school has grown to 420 pupils with a nursery unit and is situated in specially designed buildings in Dollis Park.

“It was great seeing all my old teachers and hearing about how the school has progressed since I left,” said Reuben Chacko. “We were given reserved seats, almost directly beneath the dome and close to all the action. I enjoyed watching the St Mary’s pupils acting out Bible stories and singing in the choir. There’s no doubt the education I received there provided a solid foundation on which I have subsequently been able to build.”

Highly respected former Government Minister Lord Sassoon gave his views on the current economic situation when he spoke at a formal luncheon for QE’s Year 12 students.

Lord Sassoon, who was Commercial Secretary to the Treasury from May 2010 to January 2013, reflected on his time as a Treasury Minister under Labour and on the period working with David Cameron and George Osborne in the run-up to the last General Election.
He also gave a clear, reasoned case in support of university tuition and top-up fees.

“We very much enjoyed the talk by Lord Sassoon. He engaged in a frank question-and-answer session after his talk, which was thoroughly appreciated by the students,” said QE’s Head of Politics, Liam Hargadon. “He openly expressed controversial views about university funding – controversial in the context of 180 students about to go to university – but this served to challenge thinking amongst the audience.”

The annual luncheon, which was attended by the Headmaster and other teachers, is organised by the School to familiarise senior pupils with the format of a formal dining occasion, while also inspiring them with an interesting speaker.

Ennobled by the Coalition Government, Sir James Sassoon was previously a senior UBS banker and, from 2002-2008 one of Labour's economic advisers, with various roles in the Treasury. He left the Government earlier this year, having expressed a wish to return to the business world.

Lord Sassoon is a member of the famous Sassoon family: his father was the first cousin of the World War I poet, Siegfried Sassoon.

Thirteen boys fought off stiff competition to reach the final of QE’s Year 7 Music Scholarship competition, taking part in a special concert before a large audience and external adjudicator.

Three boys were then awarded scholarships: Jonathan Ho; Ori Langer and Uday Kataria.

The scholarships, which offer financial support towards additional opportunities or resources to further pupils’ musical progress, attracted a large number of applicants. The 13 finalists made it through two short-listings to qualify for the final concert.

“Although we take the boys’ all-round musicianship into consideration, it is important that the competition culminates in a performance,” said QE’s Director of Music, Kieron Howe. “It is only on the concert platform that it is possible to judge which of the candidates are most able to communicate their music to an audience.”

Jonathan Ho began learning piano at the age of four and the drum at six. He has passed Grade 6 on the piano and Grade 4 on the snare drum. He performed Michael Skinner’s Snares Off and Handel’s Allegro from Suite in G in the final concert.

Ori Langer plays the French Horn and attends the Junior Guildhall’s music school where he plays in their wind orchestra. He chose Wagner’s Tannhäuser Overture and Saint-Saëns Romance, Op.36 for the final.

Uday Kataria has passed Grade 7 on the flute, Grade 6 on voice and Grade 3 piano. In the final he played Johann Sebastian Bach’s Andante and Paul Taffanel’s Allegro.

“It was a fabulous evening of extremely high-quality music-making, which made the decision very difficult for the adjudicators, added Mr Howe. The 13 boys who got through to the final concert performed excellently and very musically. All of the boys showed great maturity in performing to such a high standard in front of a large and appreciative audience.”

The senior adjudicator was Danielle Salamon, an experienced recitalist, solo player, accompanist and chamber musician, who teaches at the Junior Department of the Royal College of Music.

Joseph Levene from Year 11 has won the annual Years 8-11 School Chess Tournament, defeating Year 9’s Ananth Balaji in a close-fought play-off. The two boys, who have both represented England at chess, were undefeated in the tournament rounds, each securing six wins and a draw.

“I was very pleased to see the number of highly able and enthusiastic chess players we have at QE,” said Geoff Roberts, teacher in charge of Chess. “Joseph is a worthy winner.”

The event attracted a high-quality field of 66 competitors, with excellent performances from Jake Breindel of Year 10 and Girishanth Sureswaran, of Year 9, who both finished in third position, Mr Roberts added. Jake and Girishanth were also the leading points scorers in their respective year groups, along with Ilan Elango, the top scorer in Year 8.

In a change of format from previous years, the School made use of the chess expertise developed by Year 12 boys. Madhi Elango, Kiran Modi and Rushil Sajip all helped run the tournament, administering the pairings for each round and acting as arbiters in the case of rule queries. They also provided chess hints and advice to the younger students throughout the day.

“All of the competitors undoubtedly enjoyed receiving coaching and advice from Sixth Form boys who have been highly successful at chess over many years,” said Mr Roberts.

QE’s highest achievers were rewarded for their endeavours at the School’s Senior Awards Ceremony.

Well over 100 prizes were awarded to boys from Year 10 to the Sixth Form at the event in the School Hall, one of the academic highlights of the QE calendar.

In his welcome, Headmaster Neil Enright pointed out that winning awards in the highly competitive context of QE requires truly outstanding performance that combines ability with sustained, focused effort.

The Guest of Honour was Professor Chris Brink, Vice-Chancellor of the University of Newcastle. Born in South Africa, he not only has a distinguished career as a logician, but also successfully led the transformation of that country’s Stellenbosch University from an institution closely associated with the former apartheid regime into a multi-racial, academically strong university.

Professor Brink grew up in a small town on the edge of the Kalahari Desert, with no opportunities for travel until he left South Africa at the age of 24 to start his PhD at Cambridge. “It doesn’t matter where you come from; it is where you end up that matters”, he told the audience of parents, guests, staff and boys. However, while highlighting the importance of boys “overcoming disadvantage” by making the most of their abilities, he also stressed that they should not lose sight of the need to contribute to society as they became successful in life – “overcoming advantage”, as he put it.

The Headmaster said: “Professor Brink gave an inspirational speech which drew on his own experience, yet resonated perfectly with our own ethos as a School which is both a meritocracy and is also committed to developing in our boys a sense of social responsibility.”

The evening was punctuated by a series of musical interludes from some of the School’s leading musicians. The repertoire ranged from pieces by Brahms, Bozza and Saint-Saëns to a recessional composed and directed by QE’s Director of Music, Kieron Howe.