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QE’s young geographers enjoyed a successful trip to Italy – with highlights that ranged from eating pizza to seeing the ruins of Pompeii.

The half-term visit for Years 7-9 began with a day spent at three attractions all connected with volcanic activity. As well as seeing the casts of dead bodies in Pompeii, the boys walked to the rim of Mount Vesuvius – the only active volcano in mainland Europe – and experienced the sulphurous steam jets, bubbling mud pools and crystallised rock formations at Solfatara, thought by the ancient Romans to be the gateway to the Underworld.

On the following day, the party took in a visit to the island of Capri, including a boat trip to see the coastline formations, a walking tour to the Gardens of Augustus and a funicular railway ride.

The final full day in Italy began with a coach trip along the Amalfi Coast, a UNESCO World Heritage site, with the later morning spent enjoying the mediaeval architecture of Amalfi. The afternoon had a food theme, beginning with a visit to the Vannulo Buffalo Mozzarella Farm and then to Olive & Lemon Farm & Mill, where the day ended with a complimentary pizza and soft drink.

Trip organiser and Geography teacher Geraldine Booth said: “We packed a great deal into the trip and the boys had a thoroughly enjoyable time, while also deepening their subject knowledge through visits to some truly spectacular geographical and geological features.”

Year 12 pupil Madhi Elango is to represent the country after beating off competition from thousands of older students to win a place on the British team for this year’s International Physics Olympiad. Madhi will join four team-mates for the competition in Copenhagen in July.

“This is a truly impressive achievement and we are delighted at Madhi’s success,” said the Headmaster, Neil Enright. “The competition is primarily aimed at Year 13 students, so he has done exceptionally well to progress to this stage. We wish him every success in Denmark and trust that he will also enjoy the cultural aspects of the trip.”

Madhi and fellow Year 12 student Aniruddh Raghu reached the second stage of the competition after they both achieved top 50 places from more than 2,000 entrants. After the second round, Aniruddh was placed in the top 30 whilst Madhi was placed in the top 16 and was selected for the final training camp in Lincoln. After sitting further exacting test papers, Madhi was finally placed in the top five.

More than 80 countries will be represented at the International Physics Olympiad (IPhO) , which was established as an international competition for secondary-level pupils in 1967. Each country is invited to send a team of up to five school students who are given an opportunity to test themselves at the very highest level against their peers. The aim of the Olympiad is also to provide a cultural and social opportunity for the participants.

One day of the IPhO will be devoted to a theoretical test paper and another to an experimental paper, each of which takes five hours. Students will receive the examination papers in their national language. Despite the extremely taxing tests, the organisers say a festival atmosphere prevails; they organise a programme of excursions and social activities to give students the chance to learn about the host culture and make friends from other countries.

Madhi and Aniruddh have both received a book prize for their performance in the Year 12 paper of the British Physics Olympiad – a separate achievement from their above success, since that competition was aimed at Year 13 students. In addition, Bhavik Mehta, Andrew Hui, Robert Swan, Tianlin Zhang and Kishan Makwana also received book tokens for their achievements in the Year 11 paper for GCSE-level Physics.

Rain on Founder’s Day failed to dampen the spirits of staff and boys, who celebrated this high point in the QE calendar with their customary pride and enthusiasm.

While the annual cricket match between the School and the Old Elizabethans had to be cancelled, many other features of the day proved popular – especially the culinary comforts provided by the international food tent!

In the morning’s Thanksgiving Service at Chipping Barnet Parish Church, guest speaker Christos Karaolis (OE 1995-2002) (pictured left below) spoke on the importance of friendships forged and lessons learned during his time at QE: “To this day, I still regularly see my friends from School who have gone on to have successful and diverse careers … our common thread is the School that gave us so much and put us on the road to those successes.”

Mr Karaolis, who completed a degree in Law at Trinity College, Oxford, worked as a political writer for John Prestcott before taking the Bar. He said: “It taught me a crucial lesson for my adult life; you can disagree, sometimes strongly, with someone for their views or beliefs, but still respect, and indeed like them, for their hard work and commitment.”

He recalled how much he had gained at QE from the Young Enterprise scheme and how he applied knowledge acquired then on a daily basis in his current employment as a business strategy consultant. “Use the advice of more experienced people – older boys, Old Elizabethans and those who you might just see as old; your teachers and parents; as I know their ideas and inspiration count for so much.”

Drizzle started to fall as the Headmaster began the traditional roll call in front of the School. “I was very impressed by the boys’ stoicism despite the weather,” he said afterwards. “It was unfortunate the cricket match had to be cancelled, but the field was something of a morass. Despite that, the day was a great success and we are confident that we will raise as much money this year as ever. The food tents were magnificent and formed one of the day’s highlights,” added Mr Enright.

The international food tent featured Indian, Chinese, West African, Sri Lankan, Turkish and (new for this year) Mediterranean foods. There was also a barbecue tent, home make cakes, and strawberries and cream.

The Concert Band disdained the wet conditions and played with considerable composure, demonstrating their musical abilities and adding to the sense of occasion.

A six-week project is underway to introduce QE boys to cutting-edge cancer research techniques while helping them develop their computer coding skills.

Cancer Research UK are bringing in their own Raspberry Pi micro-processors to teach a select group of Year 8 and 9 boys about their work. The Raspberry Pi is a small, inexpensive computer developed in the UK to help promote the teaching of computer science in schools.

Before the expert team came in, QE’s Head of Pupil Progression, Dr Sarah Westcott, organised an introductory session on DNA’s triplet code, in order to make the project accessible to the 14 boys.

In addition to the micro-processors, the team also brought in their own monitors, keyboards and mice for the boys to use. They demonstrated DNA sequencing and how to identify and analyse any changes, notably mutations, explaining how that assists into the research of the causes of cancer and possible treatments. The team also brought with them DNA models and chromatographs showing a sequence run, which helped to reinforce the complex concepts to which the boys were being introduced.

The team, from the cancer charity’s London Research Institute in South Mimms, are linking the project to the 60^th anniversary of the publication of Nobel Prize winners Francis Crick and James Watson’s DNA Structure Paper in Nature magazine in April 1953.

A Year 9 boy has been selected to represent Great Britain in baseball this summer.

Rion Hoshino, who plays in the London Youth Baseball League (LYBL), has been chosen to join an All-Star team that will represent Great Britain in Kutno, Poland, in July at the Europe & Africa Regional Tournament.

The winning team will go forward to represent Europe & Africa in the Junior Division Little League World Series in Michigan, USA. Little League Baseball is one of the largest youth sport organisations in the world.

The President of LYBL, James McClure, said: “This is an élite playing opportunity to compete against teams from many other countries in Europe and Africa. As the players will be staying along with the other teams, it is not only a significant athletic experience, but also a cultural learning opportunity.”

Rion started playing baseball three years ago and plays every weekend in the LYBL. He was also selected to play for Team GB at the U15 European Championships in Prague in April 2013, when the team reached the quarter-finals.

“We are very pleased with Rion’s baseball achievements thus far and wish him every success in the forthcoming tournament,” said Headmaster Neil Enright. “It is very satisfying to see our boys performing so well in such a diverse range of sports.”

Queen Elizabeth’s School has been named as London’s top boys’ state school in a Sunday Times feature on the capital’s schools.

The school is eighth in the newspaper’s London-wide rankings, headed only by fee-paying schools and by Henrietta Barnett, a girls’ grammar, which is in sixth place. Nationally, QE currently stands in joint-11th place in the Sunday Times’ rankings of the best 700 secondary schools, having risen from 17th place last year. In these national tables, it is again the leading boys’ state school.

The tables are based on the percentage of top grades at both A-level and GCSE.  For A-levels nationally, QE was joint-fourth overall, outstripping all other state schools, including Henrietta Barnett.

Headmaster Neil Enright said: “It’s widely acknowledged that London has some of highest-achieving schools in the country, so to be named as its top boys’ state school is most gratifying. Our boys come from all sorts of backgrounds and QE is strictly a meritocracy: any pupil with talent and determination can achieve academic success at the highest levels here.”

Earlier this year, QE emerged in Government league tables as the top state school for A-levels anywhere in the country according to the new measure of how many students achieved a  benchmark of two A grades and a B in ‘facilitating subjects’.  These are core academic subjects, identified by the Russell Group of leading universities following its research into which subjects are more likely to secure university places. In 2012, 65% of QE’s A-level candidates reached this benchmark.