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Queen Elizabeth’s School is highly praised in a lengthy feature in The Independent, following a visit by the newspaper’s Education Editor, Richard Garner.

The double-page spread by the respected journalist is devoted entirely to the School, highlighting its recent achievements and looking at the reasons for its success.

Headlined Queen Elizabeth's boys' grammar has been doing its own thing since 1573 – with impressive results, the article begins by briefly explaining how the School was established with a charter from Queen Elizabeth I which “clearly states that this should be a free school operating in a meritocratic way, to offer places to young boys from all walks of life.” Headmaster Neil Enright told Mr Garner: “The School is very much still pursuing the tenets of its Tudor charter.”

Notwithstanding the School’s location, described by The Independent as “very leafy, suburban, white, British-dominated territory”, the article points out that 90% of the boys are from ethnic minority groups drawn from a very wide area and that “in terms of the national deprivation index, its intake broadly reflects the average for the country”.

Mr Garner tracks the School’s progression from a struggling comprehensive in the mid-1980s that was rumoured to be at risk of closure through its reversion to academic selection in 1994 to its conversion to Academy status under the new framework introduced by the current Coalition Government. The feature mentions that QE is one of only two schools in the country where 100% of pupils achieved the English Baccalaureate this year.

One section focuses on languages, looking at the introduction of compulsory Latin two years ago and the offer of Mandarin as an enrichment option. “It would be possible in future for a boy to take GCSEs in French, German, Spanish, Mandarin and Latin. We expect some will do so,” the Headmaster told The Independent. “We really think there is a lot of merit in the study of languages, full stop.”

Queen Elizabeth's boys' grammar has been doing its own thing since 1573 – with impressive results
The Independent, Thursday 10 April 2014

The article also looks at enrichment facilities, citing the fact that 350 boys are in the School Choir as evidence of the strength of Music at QE. This strength can perhaps be attributed to the fact that it is a boys’ school: “In mixed schools, Music can be seen as a girls’ activity,” one unnamed Music teacher is quoted as saying. Water polo, swimming and games (in particular, the School’s annual Rugby Sevens tournament, which was being held on the day of the journalist’s visit) are all given as examples of purposeful extra-curricular activities which demonstrate that the School is, as Mr Garner puts it, “already ahead of the Government’s exhortation for schools to remain open for up to 10 hours a day”.

The feature ends with further examples of recent achievement by QE, including its membership of Mayor Boris Johnson’s London Schools Gold Club and 37 offers of Oxbridge places made to QE boys this year. “Its Tudor founding fathers would be proud,” Mr Garner concludes.

Competition finalists from QE have won a total of £750 of book tokens, which will be used to establish an Economics section in the School’s new Queen’s Library.

Fifteen boys from Year 11 reached the finals of Young Writers’ Competition run jointly by the Financial Mail and Baillie Gifford Savings Management Ltd, each winning £50 for the School as well as book tokens for them to spend on themselves.

Jake Breindel, Sufiyan Gaffar, Omar Haidar, Sahil Handa, Dillon Patel, Saif Rehman, Kischan Sivayoganathan, Bhavik Somani were finalists in the 13-15 year-old age category. In the 16-18 year-old category, Dylan Amin, Timothy Chan, Piyush Kalyani, Ryun Pang, Shiras Patel, Abeiram Sivaragah and Daniil Slavin were also finalists.

The participants were all invited to submit an essay of 1,000 words entitled If you were a teacher how would you teach personal finance and what lessons would you want your pupils to learn? The organisers said the topical question was designed to stimulate young minds and motivate students to have their say about personal finance. The entries were judged on relevance, ideas and insight, well balanced arguments and writing style.

The Headmaster personally congratulated the finalists. He said: “They have done very well, and we were delighted to receive the book tokens. It seemed fitting to use them to make a start on our Economics section in our Library, which will benefit many pupils for years to come.”

• The School has appointed a Librarian for the Queen's Library, Ciara Murray. Ms Murray takes up her position on 12th May.

Musicians from across the School performed in a specially themed concert exploring the elements that form part of many ancient philosophies.

The Five Elements Concert in the Shearly Hall featured choral and instrumental music from a wide variety of genres.

Congratulating all the musicians afterwards, Director of Music Kieron Howe said: “This was the final concert in which our Year 13 boys were able to perform before they leave this summer. They were involved in several of the ensembles performing and brought all their experience to bear, thus producing music of a very high standard indeed.”

The concert reflected the elements of fire, earth, air, water and sky. It began with the Concert Band, directed by Mr Howe, playing Earth and Sky by Michael Sweeney, Oblivion by Astor Piazzolla and Dan Hartman’s 1979 disco hit, Relight My Fire.

In a busy programme, the Junior Saxophone Quintet, Senior Indian Ensemble, the tenors & basses of the Choir and the Senior String Orchestra all performed before the interval. Again, the repertoire was highly varied: the saxophonists tackled Michael Jackson’s Man in the Mirror; the singers delivered three traditional songs; the Senior Indian Ensemble performed two pieces including Paatum Naane by K V Mahadevan, and the strings’ selection included Sunrise, Sunset from Fiddler on the Roof.

The Senior String Orchestra also performed the first of the evening’s two renditions of Bridge Over Troubled Water. The Barbershop Group then sang the Simon & Garfunkel Grammy Award-winning hit after the break.

Also performing in the second half of the concert were the Chamber Choir, who sang the Song of the Three Holy Children from John Rutter’s Durham Canticle. The text of the song, which mentions all five elements, was printed in the programme.  Next came the Camerata, with a selection featuring Chim Chim Cheree from Mary Poppins and Henry Mancini’s Moon River. The Symphony Orchestra brought the evening to a close with Gustav Holst’s Jupiter from The Planets, as well as The Blue Danube by Johann Strauss II.

The diligence of QE's Year 12 Physicists has been rewarded with a grand total of 14 awards in this year's Physics Olympiad, run by Oxford University.

Two QE boys, Bhavik Mehta and Robert Swan, were awarded gold with a further five gaining silver and seven winning the two levels of bronze available (listed below). Nationally, most entrants are not placed.

The Olympiad’s AS Challenge is designed to stretch lateral thinking skills and encourage participants to apply fundamental physical principles to novel situations. It comprises a single, one-hour paper made up of a section of multiple-choice questions and a short-answers section.

“This is a very good result and a just reward for the hard work of the boys taking part,” said Physics teacher Ashley Dyson, who organised QE’s participation in the event. “The competition is very challenging as it is aimed at the very top tier of Year 12 students.”

Silver award winners
Anoshan Ananthajeyasri, Ralph Flint, Vinul Wimalaweera, Alex Zanre and Tianlin Zhang                   

Bronze I award winners
Aronya Roy, Samkit Shah and Jason Wong                    

Bronze II award winners
Harshil Joshi, Kishan Makwana, Vishnu Pahwa and Harshil Sumaria                

QE boys produced a 25-minute video news programme as part of the nationwide BBC News School Report initiative, covering topics ranging from immigration to the impact of the winter’s floods.

More than 20 boys from Year 9 worked closely together to plan and make the programme, which was shot at locations around the School. It included reports on topics including: a visit to the School by Holocaust survivor, Mala Tribich; global warming; the rising cost of going to the cinema; national changes to GCSEs; immigration and unemployment, and an account of how the flooding affected the family of QE boy Aravindh. (Following guidance, only first names were used.)

There was some adventurous use of on-screen graphics during the programme, which was presented by anchormen Keenan and Suraj. Before the final credits, QE’s own weatherman, Ajanthan, presented a national forecast “powered by QE weather systems”.

Working with Head of English Susannah Sweetman, English teacher Tom Quinn led a team in which each boy had his own designated role, ranging from editor to cameraman. The boys were also mentored by Old Elizabethan Peter Sumpter (1968-1974), a member of the BBC 10 O’Clock News production team.

Mr Quinn (seen right with the boys and below with the BBC's Huw Edwards) said: “All in all, the boys worked tremendously hard towards the end product, scripting, filming, directing, and editing it all themselves (with the occasional nudge in the right direction). I’m very proud of all the effort and creativity they have put in.

“It has certainly served to hone their skills in time-management, working towards a deadline, cross-curricular research, writing, technical composition and general teamwork.”

The BBC News School Report aims to interest young people in news of all sorts, while also providing them with an opportunity to inform their audience about the stories which are important to them.

An initial version of the programme can be seen here. The problems with sound quality apparent in some places are the result of technical problems: these will be resolved in due course.

Year 13 pupil Gabriel Gendler is celebrating after achieving the remarkable feat of being selected as a member of the UK’s International Mathematical Olympiad squad for the third consecutive year.

The squad is drawn from those who have achieved success in the British Mathematical Olympiad and thus brings together an élite group of the country’s finest mathematicians.

“This selection represents a substantial achievement for Gabriel,” said the Headmaster, Neil Enright. “Two years ago Gabriel was the reserve; last year he was selected for the team that competed in Santa Marta, Colombia, and achieved a silver medal – the first QE boy ever to reach the team. His ambition is to achieve a gold, if picked for the team this year, and our best wishes go with him and the rest of the UK squad.”

Gabriel was selected as one of 20 pupils from schools all over the UK to participate in the UK IMO’s training camp at Trinity College in Cambridge last month.  The invitations were based on performances in earlier selection rounds and previous experience in the competition. At the end of the Cambridge training camp he learnt that he had been selected as one of the nine-strong squad for this year’s IMO which will take place in Cape Town, South Africa. He will learn later this month whether he will form part of the six-strong team or be one of the three reserves.

Gabriel has been offered a place at Trinity College, Cambridge, to study Mathematics in the autumn and is looking forward to a career closely linked to the subject.

Contestants in the IMO must answer six problems, each worth seven points. It was first held in Romania in 1959 and has since been held annually, except in 1980. Participants must be under the age of 20 and must not be registered at any higher education institution, so this will be Gabriel’s final opportunity to take part before taking up his university place.