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QE reached the semi-finals of the U12 Broxbourne Rugby Tournament, narrowly losing to the eventual winners.

The QE boys successfully qualified from the pool stages, setting up the semi-final against Richard Hale School from Hertford.

After their opponents had initially taken the lead, QE fought back to square the game. The fiercely contested match was decided in the dying seconds when Richard Hale School scored beneath the posts to win 12-7.

Richard Hale School went on to beat Watford Grammar School in the final.

QE musicians have won first place in two categories of the Spring Grove Music Festival.

The QE Ensemble, made up of the String Quartet and six singers, won the Popular category and Year 13 student Chris Georgiou’s composition, performed by the String Quartet, won the Composition category.

“After impressing in the first round of the festival, the boys once again put together strong performances in the final and I am delighted with their success,” said QE’s Director of Music, Kieron Howe.

QE overcame strong competition from schools including The Henrietta Barnett School and South Hampstead High School to pick up the first prizes of £350 per category, which were presented by the actor Simon Callow. The Saxophone Quartet, which also reached the final in the Popular category, performed very well too, Mr Howe added.

All the QE musicians had received positive comments from the first-round judging panel, who said: “We commend the Head of Music at QE on the imaginative and excellent choice of repertoire for all his groups.”

In fact, the judges were so impressed with the String Quartet’s performance of Chris Georgiou’s composition that they asked to hear it performed again after the first-round adjudication. In their feedback, the judges – pianist Tessa Uys, Royal Shakespeare Company Director Janet Suzman and BBC Radio 3 presenter Lucie Skeaping wrote: “An exciting performance. The accomplished quartet caught the mood of the music. The composer should be congratulated on an outstanding composition. He shows great promise for the future.”

The competition was run under the auspices of the Springdene Care Homes Group on behalf of the elderly, and many residents were present at the performances.

A QE team has progressed to the regional heat of a national mock trial competition after winning the same case when they successively prosecuted and defended it.

The team of boys from Years 8 and 9 overcame Welwyn School and Skinners’ Academy in the first round of the competition run by the charity, the Citizenship Foundation.

“The boys were allocated roles such as magistrates, lawyers, witnesses and court reporters, and had to both prosecute and defend a case,” said English teacher Peter Morton, who accompanied the boys. “Our boys went head-to-head with their counterparts from the other schools and were complimented on the skill and balance with which they reached their decisions.”

The foundation says that over 95% of criminal cases, more than a million every year, are dealt with by magistrates, yet many people know very little about what they do. The Magistrates' Court Mock Trial Competition, which has been running annually since 1994, aims to introduce the legal system to young people in an innovative and exciting way.

The adjudication of the competition, which was held in Highbury Corner Magistrates’ Court, was based on the performance of the participants rather than the results of the trial. However, Mr Morton added: “Given that both trials were for the same case, to win in both directions is testimony to the strength of our performance!”

Alexandros Wilkinson of Year 9 followed a line of questioning when prosecuting, during which he asked the defendant whether he expected the court to believe the truth of his story, extracting the answer, “no”. 

“All the team members provided invaluable support, from the ushers to the legal advisers and the court reporters and court artists,” said Mr Morton. The work of the reporters and artists will be separately adjudicated. [One of Kriisan Manoharasundaram's sketches is shown right.]

The team progresses to the regional heat on 11th May, with a chance to qualify for the national finals, which will take place in Nottingham in June.

The team, who were accompanied by Mr Morton and fellow staff members Simon Demetriou, Sarah Snowdon and Tahmer Mahmoud, is named below:

Magistrate 1 – Yuta Tsuchiya
Magistrate 2 – Nabil Haque
Magistrate 3 – Sanchit Agrawal
Legal Adviser – Abbas Adejonwo
Prosecution Lawyer 1 – Shiv Bakrania
Prosecution Lawyer 2 – Alexandros Wilkinson
Prosecution Witness 1 – Imad Mohammed Nazar
Prosecution Witness 2 – Rahul Kanwar
Defence Lawyer 1 – Abhishek Srivastava
Defence Lawyer 2 – Maaz Shahzad
Defendant – Ijtihad Chowdhury
Defence Witness – Roshan Shah
Usher – Ravi Karia
Court Artist 1 – Ishanka Amarasinkhe
Court Artist 2 – Kriisan Manoharasundaram
Court Reporter 1 – Aran Patel
Court Reporter 2 – Zain Danish
 

An innovative cross-curricular lesson combining cookery and French proved popular with Year 8 pupils.

Modern Foreign Languages teacher Gillian Ross liaised with Food Technology teacher Sheila Patel, who arranged for a demonstration of how to cook a croque-monsieur – a toasted sandwich comprising two slices of bread and a slice of cheese with ham (or tomatoes for a vegetarian option) which is then cooked in a frying pan with butter. 

The demonstration was conducted in a mixture of English and French to allow pupils to revise the vocabulary they had already learned in the classroom.

“The boys have been studying the topic of Manger et Boire [eating and drinking] in French and we thought it would be a good idea to do some practical cookery to reinforce the vocabulary they have been learning,” said trainee MFL teacher Stephanie Bouhraoua.

“We felt this was an imaginative and educationally enriching way to use the School’s new Food Technology area,” she added. “The boys were disciplined, but very enthusiastic and proud of themselves. Many told me that they tried to make them at home to show their mums what they had learned.”

A team of QE economists performed strongly in a prestigious investment competition’s regional round and are on the reserve list for the national final.

Year 13 pupils Shivan Thakrar, Neil Gujar, Ronak Shah and Cheuk Hei Au, who compete under the name of The Fun Guys, had qualified for the south east regional final of  the ifs Student Investor Challenge competition after successfully investing their ‘fantasy’ £100,000 over a three-month period.

Over 2,500 teams entered the competition in the region, with only the top 20 qualifying for the regional final, which took place at the ifs School of Finance offices by The Monument in central London. The competition comprised a quiz in three rounds on a range of finance and economics topics and current affairs.

“By the start of the last round we were told that The Fun Guys were in the top five,” said Liane Ryan, Head of Economics at QE. “They performed brilliantly and finished in third place, narrowly beaten by strong competition from the Royal Grammar School Guildford and previous winners Trinity School.”

Ms Ryan won the teachers’ competition on a tie-breaker and received a bottle of champagne.

The eight teams in the national final will compete for an all-expenses-paid trip to New York, a £2,000 cash prize for their school or college and £200 for each team member.

Two QE teams acquitted themselves with merit in highly regarded debating competitions. One team of two Year 12 boys participated in the final of the Cambridge University Schools Debating Competition finals day, whilst eight Year 12 students took part in a European Youth Parliament debate at Westminster.

“Ethan Axelrod and Gabriel Gendler competed alongside the 40 best teams in the country in the Cambridge debate, having won local and regional rounds in a competition with more than 500 teams. Thus, although they weren’t placed, they did tremendously well to get that far,” said Nisha Mayer, teacher in charge of debating.

Four debates were held during the day, with motions such as ‘This House believes that the West should provide financial and military support to opposition groups in oppressive regimes’.

Ethan Axelrod was joined by Ben Howell, Ben Collins, Kiran Modi, Surya Bowyer, Niam Radia, Ram Popat and Madhi Elango for the European Youth Parliament debate, competing with around a dozen leading schools from across the south east of England.

“The day involved five debates. Our boys successfully opposed a resolution on stem cell research and were very persuasive,” said Mrs Mayer. “Unfortunately only one team out of the ten taking part was selected for the national round and we narrowly missed out.”