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Renowned mathematician and alumnus Dr Malcolm Sabin delivered a lecture to the whole of Year 10 when he visited his alma mater.

He essentially gave the QE boys the same talk that he gave at the Royal Society when he received an Institute of Mathematics Gold Medal in recognition of his life time’s work and contribution to the field of Mathematics.

Dr Sabin, who was at QE from 1952 – 1959, was a pioneer of computer-aided design (CAD) and over the course of a varied career has worked in the aircraft industry, in engineering and in academia.

“We were honoured to have a preview of a talk that was shortly afterwards given in the more august surroundings of the Royal Society!” said Maths teacher Wendy Fung. “During his talk to Year 10 he explained how shape description using Maths enables designers, engineers and mechanics to communicate during a project, ensuring that separate component parts will fit together to make a whole. He gave Pixar as an example of a company that makes use of the work he does with CAD, offering boys a fascinating insight into how Maths is relevant outside the classroom.”

The event was organised by Head of Mathematics, Gee Scarisbrick, as part of the School’s curriculum enrichment programme.

A BBC newsreader and correspondent who has interviewed prime ministers and reported from war zones came to QE to share experiences that range from being rebuked by Margaret Thatcher to finding himself marooned in an Afghan minefield.

Jon Sopel spoke to Year 12 pupils and QE staff as part of the Speakers for Schools scheme. The independent charity aims to promote visits to schools by authoritative and knowledgeable speakers who are leaders in their respective fields.

Mr Sopel is the regular presenter of BBC World News and reads the BBC’s national 1 o’clock, 6 o’clock and 10 o’clock news programmes. He has also hosted Newsnight and has worked as the BBC’s Chief Political Correspondent. He was the BBC’s Paris correspondent for three years, during the French ban on British beef and the Concorde crash, and was the corporation’s reporter in Kuwait City during the 2003 invasion by Iraq. Politicians he has interviewed during his long career include Tony Blair, David Cameron, Gordon Brown and Condoleezza Rice, the US Secretary of State.

During his talk he recounted experiences good and bad from his career. These included walking through a minefield and being told to ‘walk carefully and come back exactly the same way, footstep for footstep, the way you came’. He recalled being instructed to put on a gas mask during a biological warfare alert, whilst the waiters carried on serving drinks around him. And he spoke of a harrowing flight back from Afghanistan, during which he was surrounded by dead bodies.

In one press conference, Margaret Thatcher told him off when he slightly hesitated over the start of a question, saying he was like “an inattentive schoolboy”.

And he spoke about interviewing a member of the public on air whose every other word was an expletive – an example of the perils of live broadcasting.

“The talk was well attended by about 40 of our Year 12 students, who are interested in politics, international relations or journalism,” said QE’s Head of Politics, Liam Hargadon, who organised the visit. “The boys and staff were delighted to hear Jon Sopel’s anecdotes about his life as a political reporter and presenter and his advice on how to pursue a career in a similar field.”

One of the country’s leading financial advisers has presented to Year 12 QE pupils a paper on the causes of economic crises that he previously gave to the House of Lords. Sheetal Radia, CFA FRSA, who has two nephews at the school, Niam in Year 12 and Rohan in Year 9, is regularly called upon to provide top-level advice on financial and economic matters.

He sits on the Advisory Board for the All Party Parliamentary Group for Entrepreneurship and was one of 32 experts invited to submit views to the Treasury Select Committee about the accountability of the Bank of England. Other experts included the Chancellor of the Exchequer and the Chairman of the Federal Reserve (the USA’s central bank).

His speech to the QE Sixth-Formers was based on his paper, Financial Amnesia, which he prepared for the Upper House at Westminster. Mr Radia’s premise is that individuals, firms in financial markets and regulators all fail to learn from past mistakes which have led to financial crises. He identified three key problem areas in which lessons should be learned: 

• The notion that ‘this time it’s different’ – the result of a combination of innovation (usually a new technology, such as the internet) with the availability of credit and the illusion of safety created by financial firms which play down macro-economic risks.
• The vulnerability of financial institutions to failure, due to factors including poor information, poor governance, flawed incentives or operational problems.
• Ineffective market regulation, with regulators often focusing on the symptoms of market failure rather that its root causes and also ignoring or forgetting the reasons for their own inability to act promptly, thus contributing themselves to the risk of systemic governance failure.    

He concluded his talk with recommendations particularly for improved regulation, and discussed with Sixth-Formers the place of behavioural psychology in Economics degree courses.

“This was an ideal opportunity for our boys who hope to follow Economics, Finance or PPE degree courses or work in the financial sector to learn first-hand from someone who operates at the highest level in his field,” said Liane Ryan, Head of Economics. “The talk was directly relevant to Economics A-level students but also allowed all those who attended a fascinating insight into how financial crises occur and what can be done to avoid them in the future.”

Mr Radia advises the Professional Standards and Market Practices Committee (PSMPC) of his professional body, the Chartered Financial Analyst Society of the UK. He runs his own independent financial advisory practice, Financial Architecture, and is a Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) charterholder.

Families and staff celebrated with enthusiasm the achievements of boys in Years 7-9 at this year’s Junior Awards Ceremony. They enjoyed refreshments on the front lawn afterwards in warm sunshine, and the prize-winning boys and their families had the opportunity to mingle with Headmaster Neil Enright and teachers.

This year’s guest speaker was alumnus Akhil Shah (OE 2002-2009), who has blazed an exceptionally high-achieving academic trail, with 13 A* GCSEs; four A-levels at grade A , a distinction in the Advanced Extension Award in Economics and a double First in Economics from Selwyn College, Cambridge. In 2012 he was awarded the Patrick Cross Prize by the college for exceptional achievement in the Economics Tripos. In 2011, he won the PricewaterhouseCoopers Prize in Economics for best overall performance in Part 2A of the Tripos.

“The prize-winners are all to be congratulated on their achievements and I also thank our young musicians, who played splendidly during the ceremony,” said the Headmaster, who is a geographer. “Akhil is an exceptional role-model for our boys and exhibits many of the qualities and accomplishments that we encourage all our pupils to strive for.”

During his address, Akhil spoke of the three key ingredients for success and achievement.: “I believe the first thing is to have a vision, the second is to work hard for it, and the last, and possibly the most challenging part, is to persevere through difficulties.”

He told the boys that at their age, having a vision did not require a long-term plan: “When I was in your position I was thinking about which subjects I should study for GCSE which, despite Mr Enright’s best efforts, did not include Geography!”

He explained how a desire to study Economics at university led him to pick his A-levels and also to read widely around the subject to see how the subject related to real life. Prompted by a growing interest in Finance, he sought an internship with RBS before his final year of study at Cambridge. “Having a plan helped to focus my endeavours and actually made life a lot easier,” he said.

He alluded to Andy Murray’s long journey to ultimate success in winning the Wimbledon Men’s Singles Championship supported by his family and friends. “I think sticking with it when things get tough is the hardest thing to do. It can be hard to let go of your pride and ask someone else for help. However, make sure you let your family, your friends and your teachers support you as you face challenges, because you can’t do it alone.”

He concluded by saying: “Don’t worry if you’re not the best or don’t get 100%; regardless of your grades, it will be your attitude that differentiates you. So just have that vision and work diligently, with perseverance and with modesty, and you really can achieve something incredible.”

From the moment of their arrival until their departure,  the boys and staff visiting QE’s German partner school enjoyed a packed programme and their hosts’ generous hospitality.

Thirty boys and three teachers – joined this year by Headmaster Neil Enright – arrived at the Friedrich-von-Bodelschwingh Gymnasium (grammar school) in Bielefeld to a warm welcome and a buffet.

One of the highlights of the opening weekend was a visit to the Kletterpark Johannisberg, a forest-based climbing centre with 90 climbing and balancing stations at seven heights. A football match and barbecue, organised by parents of the Bielefeld exchange students, rounded off the weekend.

In the following days, the boys enjoyed a variety of opportunities to experience local culture and improve their language skills. They participated in lessons and acted as classroom support workers in some English classes. They also took part in special group projects in disciplines dance, acrobatics, music, cooking, film, art and linguistics.

A visit to the Dr Oetker factory proved particularly popular. The company was founded in 1891 and is renowned for its food products such as frozen pizzas, drinks, baking powder and cake mixtures.

“It was a great pleasure to see how much the boys benefited from the language and cultural opportunities available to them whilst also clearly having fun,” said Mr Enright. “This exchange once again underlined the benefits of foreign language-learning, which include well attested improvements in mental abilities.”

The week was founded off with a disco at the school, a trip to Heidepark Soltau (a theme park near Hamburg) and a visit to Sparrenburg Castle.

This summer’s QE Sports Day saw record numbers of boys and staff taking part and impressive individual and team performances.

It also provided a high point on which to end the year, the Headmaster said. During the academic year, the School has won accolades in a wide number of subjects and extra-curricular areas, including Science, Mathematics, Art, Music, Economics, Engineering, Chess and Sport.

Recently, the School’s athletes recorded a number of successes at the Barnet Championships at the Allianz Stadium. The following boys triumphed over competitors from schools across the borough to be crowned Barnet Champions: in Year 7, Patrick Owen in the 1,500 and Yusuf Maududi in the long jump; in Year 8, Liam Hagley at 800m and Rakul Sri in the javelin, and in Year 10, Eddie Revell at 1,500m.

On Sports Day, these same athletes produced exceptional performances, with Patrick Owen recording victories in the 1,500m in both the Year 7 & 8 competitions and also the 800m. Yusuf Maududi won the 100m, 200m and long jump events, whilst Liam Hagley and Rakul Sri won the 800m and 100m and javelin respectively. Eddie Revell came first in the 1,500m. Other standout individual efforts included Luke Van Turenhout, of Year 9, who won the 300m and high jump, and Daniel Santosh, also of Year 9, who won the 1,500m and came second in the 800m. Eben Sarpong, of Year 10, won the 100m despite a season dogged by a hamstring injury which has prevented him from running to his true potential.

“I must congratulate the staff and boys for their contributions, and, of course, the winning House, Broughton, to whom I presented the cup,” said the Headmaster, Neil Enright. “It was a thoroughly enjoyable day in the blazing sunshine and it was pleasant to see the boys competing against each other but also working with each other in team events. The level of support was excellent and the 15 Sports Leaders, along with many more prefects, did an excellent job in organising events and motivating pupils throughout the day.”

Several new events were introduced this year, with the tug of war, Eton fives, table tennis and triathlon competitions adding new excitement to the day. The QE Mile was won, for the first time since its inception five years ago, by the staff team. The event is contended for by eight teams – one from each of the six School Houses, a staff team and a team made up from the Sixth Form boys working towards their Community Sports Leadership Award. Each team has 16 members, who each run 100m; the House teams comprise four boys from each of Years 7 to 10.

“I really think it was the best Sports Day that we have had since the development of the new programme several years ago,” said PE teacher and Sports Day Organiser, Nicholas Bird. “More staff than ever contributed towards scoring, measuring and general supporting of events than ever before. The number of boys who took part was amazing!”

Other events included the rowing relay. The rowing machines were moved to the side of the athletics track and teams of boys rowed a total of 110 kms during the two-hour race. The rowing relay, along with events such as the 4x400m running relay, enabled pupils from all years to work together for the good of their House.

Broughton House won both the Year 7 & 8 Competitions, contributing to its overall victory, whilst Pearce’s Year 9 team came out on top in the tug of war. The highest points total scored by an individual form was 174 – a total achieved by both 8B and 9U.