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The School welcomes news of Old Elizabethans, including those taking “gap years”. One such is Joe Sheffer whose year includes a motorbike journey through Europe and the Middle East towards India and then back through Russia.

It is possible to keep track of Joe’s journey by logging on to: www.joeontheroad.co.uk.

Year 7 pupil Dhruv Nanavati won first prize in an art competition run by The Spires shopping centre and the Barnet and Potters Bar Times.

Dhruv had to design a poster based on the Indiana Jones adventures. He won tickets for himself, his family and friends to see Indiana Jones and the Crystal Skull at the Odeon Cinema.

Four Year 10 Business Studies teams have won awards in the 2008 Young Direct Marketing Awards after beating off tough competition from more than 170 school teams from across the UK.

The winning teams were announced at an awards ceremony at the Magic Circle Headquarters in London in June.

The scheme is organised by the Direct Marketing Association and the teams were asked to devise a direct marketing campaign, incorporating a direct mail element, for one of three charity partners: Friends of the Earth, the Royal National Lifeboat Institution and the Guide Dogs Association for the Blind.

The Fresh Approach’s Alex Grethe, Tommy Marsh, Anup Desai and Andrew Arnett, and Climate Change Controllers Rolphy Morrell, Roshan Mistry, Charles Morris and Andrew Spencer won Bronze and Silver awards respectively for their campaigns for Friends of the Earth.

Keshav Joshi, Kishan Patel and Dinesh Napal of KDK were highly commended for their entry for the Royal National Lifeboat Institution, while The Bavishi Bunch, Steven Haveron, James Evangelou, Gabriel Adler and Jack Jacobs gained a Silver award for their work with the Guide Dogs Association for the Blind.

Two Year 7 boys organised a five-a-side football inter-house tournament for charity. Kiran Modi, of 7B, and Rushil Sajip, of 7H, raised £457.26 for Save the Children, which was presented to two representatives from the charity during assembly: Sam Hale, Head of the Central Office, and Jean Gooch, secretary of the Harrow branch.

Both commended the two boys for organising the event and praised their classmates for supporting it.

During the assembly, the boys heard a presentation on life in other parts of the world. They learnt that 10% of the world’s population does not have access to clean drinking water, and that the deadliest creature on the planet, in terms of lives lost, is the mosquito.

They were told that 82% of their donations will go directly to helping people both abroad and in the UK, with the remaining 18% used for encouraging similar charity events and promoting Save the Children.

The winning A and B teams were both from Pearce House.

QE boys have achieved considerable success in the prestigious national Junior Mathematical Olympiad, winning a string of certificates and medals.

The Olympiad is the follow-on round to the United Kingdom Mathematics Trust’s Junior Maths Challenge and is open to high scorers in the Challenge. The Challenge is itself aimed at the top 35% of pupils in Year 8 and below.

Eight QE boys qualified for the Olympiad and of these, four were awarded certificates of distinction (Gabriel Gendler, Akshay Shah, Ronak Shah and Andrew Wang).

In addition, Gabriel obtained a gold medal, and Ronak and Andrew were awarded silver for their impressive solutions to the questions.

The top 50 candidates in the competition were also given a book, Knotty Number Problems and Other Puzzles by Ivan Moscovich. Gabriel and Ronak both received this prize.

Headmaster John Marincowitz gave the audience an insight into the secret of QE prizewinners’ success at the School’s Junior Awards Day. “We recognise that achievement at this level is not simply a matter of natural gift or talent; it is also the product of disciplined, sustained effort,” said Dr Marincowitz.

A total of 113 prizes were awarded during the event in the School Hall, including Junior Awards for Years 7-9 as well as Endowed Prizes and Special Awards.

In his speech, the Headmaster referred to the collective success of the School earlier this year when OFSTED inspectors judged it to be ‘outstanding’ against all 26 of their criteria. It thus became unique as the only school to have achieved four consecutive ‘outstanding’ OFSTED reports covering the 14 years since 1994. Similarly, he mentioned The Sunday Times’ recent naming of Queen Elizabeth’s School as State School of the Year.

“By contrast, our focus this afternoon is on those individual junior boys whose academic and extra-curricular achievements have been identified as truly outstanding in the context where standards are exceptionally high,” he said. “We celebrate their excellence in the humanities and sciences, in the performing and visual arts, sports and in leadership and commitment in the service of others.”

Guest of honour at the Awards Day was Stephen McCaffrey, an Old Elizabethan (1994-2001) who has achieved success as a lawyer, working in criminal defence and extradition law for the Magistrates and Crown Court. He has been appointed as a Researcher to a defence team at the Sierra Leone War Crimes Tribunal in the Special Court of Sierra Leone – an appointment that, coming so early in his year, represents a tribute to his ability.

Mr McCaffrey took a full part in School life during his seven years at QE, playing rugby at both House and School level. A talented musician, he played in the String Orchestra and Symphony Orchestra with such distinction that he became lead viola when in the Sixth Form.

“For many years now, Stephen and his family have been loyal and staunch supporters of the School and it is indeed a pleasure and a privilege for us to welcome him here today,” Dr Marincowitz added.

The Awards Day featured a full programme of music, beginning with a Processional composed and directed by Director of Music Kieron Howe, with Nathanael Jackson playing the trombone and Ryan Murphy on the baritone saxophone.

Kazuki Kino performed The Buccaneer, from Sir Malcolm Arnold’s set of Piano Pieces. Dr Mangalampalli Balamuralikrishna’s Kathanakuthukalam, a composition of South Indian music for the carnatic (bamboo) flute, was played by Praveen Prathapan. Another piano composition, Loeillet’s Giga, was then performed by Vincent Cheung, before Mr Howe’s Recessional No. 5, with Nathanael Jackson on trombone again and Jonathan Bradshaw on trumpet, brought the proceedings to a conclusion.

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