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Queen Elizabeth’s School is the first in London to achieve a 100% pass rate in the English Baccaulaureate, the Government’s new league tables reveal.

All 179 GCSE pupils at QE attained the performance measure, which was introduced in 2010. Devised by Education Secretary Michael Gove, the English Baccalaureate (EBacc) requires pupils to achieve A*-C grades in English, Mathematics, at least two sciences, a foreign language and History or Geography. The only other school in the country to achieve a 100% EBacc pass rate this year is Chelmsford County High School for Girls.

The Headmaster, Neil Enright, said: “I think the EBacc results reflect our strength as a school in core academic subjects – as well, of course, as underlining a tremendous amount of hard work by our pupils, supported by very dedicated teachers.”

The league tables also confirm that 100% of last summer’s candidates at QE gained the benchmark five A*-C passes, including English and Mathematics, at GCSE.

And they reveal that the School has a high ‘value-added’ figure of 1046.5 at Key Stage 4 – indicating that pupils at 16 are achieving considerably more than might have been predicted based on their educational level at age 11. Overall, 49% of pupils at QE do not have English as their first language.

The School’s performance today attracted regional and national media interest. Speaking to the Evening Standard, Mr Enright rejected suggestions that the EBacc devalued subjects not included in the measure: “I don’t think it has to be like that. Whilst we have a traditional curriculum here, last year 40 boys took GCSE Music, 35 took Art and more than 50 took Design Technology.”

London grammar school celebrates perfect English Baccalaureate score – Evening Standard, Thursday 23 January 2014

Gove's revolution: pupils return to traditional subjects in huge numbers – The Independent, Friday 24 January 2014

The percentage of A* grades at GCSE in 2013 set a new QE record for the second consecutive year. Among the Year 11 pupils, 66% of examinations taken were awarded A*. This represents a further improvement on the 2012 figure of 63.9%, which was itself a substantial jump over the 55.3% recorded in 2011.

A-level results were also impressive, matching the record-breaking figures of the previous year. In 2013, 98.3% of A-levels taken at QE were awarded A*-B grades, while almost four in every ten examinations (39%) were given the A* grade.

The current Sixth-Formers also look set to continue the record of high achievement. The School is on track to equal its record for the number of boys sent to Oxford and Cambridge, with 37 pupils having received Oxbridge offers this year.

Seven Sixth-Formers achieved a certificate of merit at the Senior UK Maths Kangaroo after finishing in the top 25%.

A further 10 boys received a certificate of participation in the competition, which is an invitation-only, follow-on event from the Senior UK Mathematics Challenge.

The highest-scoring participants in the challenge last term qualified for Round 1 of the Senior British Olympiad – in which eight QE boys have subsequently taken part, with three winning medals. The Kangaroo is for strong challenge competitors who just missed out on places in the Olympiad; it aims to set a formidable test of mathematical ability.

It takes the form of a one-hour paper with 20 questions. All the questions require three-digit answers (using leading zeros where necessary) entered on to a machine-readable sheet similar to those used for the Senior Challenge.

“My warmest congratulations go to all involved,” said Wendy Fung, Assistant Head of Mathematics. “Both the Kangaroo and the Olympiad require first-class skills in Mathematics.”

QE’s highest Kangaroo scorer from Year 12 was Vaheshan Ramaneswaran, with 80 out of 100; the highest scorer from Year 13 was Abhishek Mukherjee, with 65 out of 100.  The other boys who achieved merit certificates were all from Year 12: Andrew Hui (65), Tianlin Zhang (65), Alex Zanre (60), Aronya Roy (60) and Kieran Chan (60).

Certificates of merit are awarded to the top 25% and certificates of participation to the other competitors.

Three QE boys have been selected for the GB Water Polo squad following trials in Cardiff.

Samuel Carling, of Year 11, Louis Waloschek, of Year 10, and Year 9’s Thushira Kumarage will now be preparing for a series of European competitions in 2015-18.

Headmaster Neil Enright said: “My congratulations go to these boys on their selection for the national squad – a considerable achievement which reflects both their natural aptitude and a great deal of hard work, as well as the expert support of their coaches and teachers.”

For the next six months, the three boys will train for a weekend each month in Cardiff; they will also attend an international camp over the summer.

PE Teacher Nicholas Bird, said: “The boys faced stiff competition – with, for example, more than 80 players taking part in the U17 trial – so their selection is no mean feat, further demonstrating the recent resurgence of water polo at QE.”

All players had been put forward for the national trials following the approval of their Regional Training Centre.

Sam, Louis and Thushira (pictured above and right) were among five QE boys who took part in the national trials. The other two – Alex Northcliffe, of Year 11, and Sahil Shah, of Year 9 – now hope to be chosen for the divisional teams for their age groups in the inter-region championships later this year. Alex will be hoping to replicate his success last year representing the East of England, while Sahil hopes to secure a place in the London squad.

A university-hosted Mathematics enrichment day gave Year 10 boys the opportunity to take part in interactive activities as well as to hear from some of the UK's top mathematicians. The day at the University of Hertfordshire (UH) was designed to allow students to explore how mathematics can be used in a variety of contexts – including some of the most popular games. Sixteen Year 10 pupils from QE attended the event.

The activities included a ‘circus’ run by Rob Eastaway, author and director of the Maths Inspiration enrichment programme, which included a game called Zequals, in which participants had to estimate answers to calculations by rounding up.

The lectures were:

Games with a twist; from Monopoly to Yukky Choccy presented by Mr Eastaway

• How long is a piece of string? which looked at how to calculate fractal lengths, presented by Dr Steve Kane, Associate Dean of School at UH
• How high will it bounce? on mechanics, delivered by Alan Davies, a professor of Mathematics at UH and a trustee of the Royal Institution of Great Britain
• The wisdom of crowds presented by Dr Hannah Fry, of University College London, who specialises in Complexity Theory.

The enrichment day was heartily endorsed by the QE boys.  “I thoroughly enjoyed the lecture on how to use simple Maths to win games! It was very educational and entertaining and gave everyone a greater understanding of how Maths is evident throughout the world. This is an experience we will never forget,” said Bushry Basheer.

“I enjoyed the lectures, especially the one on why birds fly in patterns across the sky, and the lecture about how Maths is involved in strategies to win games,” said Jonathan Beresford of Year 10. “However, my favourite part was the Maths quiz during lunchtime.” 

“We had the opportunity to explore Maths in a different way.  The lectures were very interesting and interactive.  It was an experience to remember,” said Ishanka Amarasinghe. “It was an interesting experience and it showed us a different side of Maths, in real-life use,” added Sanchit Agrawal.

QE's chess team has qualified for the national stage of the English Chess Federation Schools' Championship by reaching the competition's zonal final.

The team had to overcome stiff competition from a high-quality field of ten schools, reaching the final with victories over Dame Alice Owen’s School and Enfield Grammar School and a semi-final away win at Woodbridge School, Suffolk.

“It is a fantastic achievement for us to reach the national stages of this prestigious competition,” said teacher Geoff Roberts who leads chess at the School. “It is particularly pleasing to succeed with a 5-1 win against Woodbridge School, a strong chess-playing school.

“Coming through such a tough zone means the team is well equipped to put in a strong performance in the national stages. Well done to all the boys involved and particularly to Madhi Elango for leading the team to such an achievement.”

The zonal final against Haberdashers’ Aske’s Boys’ School will take place later this month.

This year’s squad has comprised: Captain Madhi Elango (Year 13); Rushil Sajip (Year 13); Joseph Levene (Year 12); Jake Breindel (Year 11); Ananth Balaji (Year 10); Rishul Karia (Year 9); George Ivanov (Year 7) and Federico Rocco (Year 7).

Four Year 12 boys have reached the regional final of a highly regarded national investment competition.

QE’s team, named the Naked Economists and comprising Ralph Flint, Paul Jung, Nathaniel Liu and Anthony Zhang, were competing against more than 30,000 students from across the UK in the ifs Student Investor Challenge. They made more than £40,000 trading in virtual shares in just three months of activity – out-performing the FTSE 100 share index in the process.

The team will now compete at the South East England regional final in London in March. If successful at that stage, they will have the opportunity of progressing to the national final in April, where the prize is an all expenses paid educational trip to New York and £2,000 for the School.

The competition, run by ifs University College and supported by Bloomberg, provides teams with £100,000 of virtual money to buy and sell shares in FTSE 100 companies. It gives teams of four students aged 14 to 19 years old the opportunity to experience the world of share-dealing and investing in the stock market. Now in its 20th year, the competition is the largest of its kind in the UK and is also open to international students.

“The competition gives our boys an ideal opportunity to gain experience of making investment decisions,” said QE’s Head of Economics, Liane Ryan. “It is only the third time that a team from QE has progressed to this stage of the competition; the boys are to be congratulated in overcoming such strong competition thus far.”

Alison Pask, Vice Principal at ifs University College said: “The competition also introduces competitors to core concepts such as risk, reward and diversification. This is a real achievement and many congratulations go to the team from Queen Elizabeth’s School.”

ifs University College describes itself as the “university for financial education”. It has a remit to provide the financial services industry with a skilled, effective and competent workforce whilst also promoting a better understanding of finance amongst consumers and young people.