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A third of this year’s British team competing in an international space design contest will comprise QE students, after four Year 11 boys were chosen to be part of the 12-strong team.

David Dubinsky, Eugene Lin, Andrew Von Maydell and Daniil Slavin will travel to the Kennedy Space Centre at Cape Canaveral in the USA in July to take part in the final. The four won the West London regional competition, thus qualifying for the national competition, which took place at Imperial College, London. More than 200 students competed in the national final.

“It is a real accomplishment that four QE boys have been selected for the British team,” said headmaster Neil Enright. “They have done exceptionally well and I wish them all success in the international competition in America, which represents a tremendous opportunity for them.”

The annual competition is organised and funded by the Imperial College’s Space Science and Engineering Foundation, the Royal Academy of Engineering and the UK Space Agency.  The students were divided into four teams of 40-50 students; each team had to select a president, two vice-presidents, and heads of department. Andrew Von Maydell was elected president of one team and Daniil Slavin was elected head of operations.

The teams were required to perform as if they were a professional company, and furnish a proposal to design and build a settlement on an asteroid. The proposal had to cover structural design, operations and infrastructure, automation design, as well as human factors such as services, living arrangements, entertainment and food production for the inhabitants. Their proposal had to be researched and costed, then submitted to a panel of judges.

Nine students were selected for the British team by the 40-50 members of the UK winning team in a secret ballot. The remaining three were chosen by the CEOs and technical advisors who were at the UK final.

The International Space Settlement Design Competition, commonly known as Spaceset or I-SSDC, will take place at the end of July and features teams from India, the USA, Canada, Australia, Pakistan, Argentina and Romania. During the four-day event, the organisers hope to create an authentic experience of working as part of an aerospace company's proposal team.

The students will have to design a city in space that will house over 10,000 people, demonstrating creativity, technical competence, management skills, space environment knowledge, teamwork, and presentation techniques. The teams will work alongside professional engineers who will share both their knowledge and experience in engineering and management. In addition to presenting their ideas to a panel of judges, they will have to create a 40-page report which communicates their ideas and designs.

Prasana Uthayakumar (OE 2003-10) is planning the journey of a lifetime this summer – a road rally from London to Ulaanbaatar.

He is one of a team of four students at Southampton University who will be participating in the Mongol Rally, which involves a 10,000-12,000 mile journey to the Mongolian capital (also known as Ulan Bator).

Prasana says: “We’re hoping to spend our summer travelling through 24 countries from as far south as Iran to as far north as Russia. This task will be no mean feat and we will push not only our physical endurance but also our mental strength. 

“Our aim is to promote awareness for WaterAid and Cool Earth – two charities we all feel extremely passionate about and trust will make a difference to the world.” He is appealing for donations and sponsorship – links to the relevant Virgin Money Giving page and the team’s own website are provided at the foot of this page.

Prasana, who is studying Mechanical Engineering, is currently in his fourth year. He is due to gain his MEng integrated Master’s degree in July. “The personal skills I gained from QE have honestly been invaluable to me, and I think they have helped me throughout university.”

The team leave from Battersea Park in their old Skoda Fabia estate on 20th July. “The other three all study Physics, so I’m apparently the one who's meant to know all about cars when, or if, we break down!” says Prasana.

About 200 other teams are taking part. The rally is organised by The Adventurists, a group organising various arduous challenges around the world. “They only help with the organisation up to the start date: there will be no back-up cars, no set route, and no assistance from anyone once we depart,” explains Prasana. “The hardest part about this rally is that once we leave, we're completely independent, and we choose our own route to make it to Ulaanbataar, befriending as many people as we can on the way, and using maps only to get there.

“Our current route is as follows: Leave London, and drive straight to Prague, and then go back down through Munich, into Austria, Switzerland, through the Swiss Alps, into northern Italy. Then travel across northern Italy from Milan to Venice, through Slovenia, pop to the beautiful sandy beaches of Croatia, then back up into Budapest, Hungary. From here, our plan is to go to Romania and do the Transfagarasan Highway (voted the best road in the world on the BBC’s Top Gear programme), and then drive through Bulgaria into Turkey. We're hoping to reach Istanbul within two weeks of departure.

“From Istanbul, our plan is to go across Turkey, through Georgia, over the Caspian Sea into Russia. From here it's all dirt tracks and sandy highways as we enter Kazakhstan – Uzbekistan – Tajikistan – Kyrgyzstan, along the infamous Pamir Highway lying on the Silk Road bordering Afghanistan and the beautiful Pamir mountains. We then enter Kazakhstan again, and make it to the Mongolian border. Upon entering Mongolia, our plan is to work our way through complete off-road terrain to finally make it to Ulaanbaatar, where the finish line is.  

“Throughout the rally, we may stay in a few hostels where we can, but to save money, and for convenience, we are going to camp or sleep in the car for the majority of the time. The total journey is about 12,000 miles, and should take up until the start of September to complete. 

“We're taking professional cameras and GoPro video cameras with us to capture the whole journey, with the aim of making a professional documentary of the whole trip."

Immediately upon his return to the UK, Prasana plans to take up a job offer at Jaguar Land Rover as a manufacturing engineer on the company’s graduate scheme. “My plan is to achieve Engineering Chartership (CEng) in the next four years through the company.” 

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A visiting lecturer in neuroscience at King’s College London put Year 13 biologists through their paces when she visited the School.

Dr Elizabeth Glennon, whose research into Alzheimer’s disease involves the study of mutated proteins in nerve transport systems, came to QE for its Gene Technology Day.

The Sixth-Formers first prepared circular samples of DNA (plasmids) that had antibiotic resistance markers in them. These were amplified using the School’s PCR (polymerase chain reaction) machine and were used to transform bacteria.

The bacteria were then grown on agar containing the antibiotic ampicillin. Only bacterial colonies that had taken up the plasmids were able to grow in the petri dishes.

"The boys very much enjoyed the opportunity to experience modern genetic technology in action in their own classroom. It gave them a valuable insight into some of the techniques used in biomedical science," said Biology teacher Martin Bassett-Jones.

Eight Sixth-Formers won gold medals in the British Biology Olympiad. Seven of them were then selected to compete in the second round – placing them in the top 3.2% of the 5,000 students taking part in the competition from across the UK 

Year 13 pupil Ankeet Tanna recorded the highest score of the 24 QE boys taking part in the  multiple-choice round first round. Fellow Year 13 boys Madhi Elango, Neil Lenus, Jack Page and Nimalesh Yogarajah were awarded gold medals, along with Year 12 pupils Andrew Hui, Rubin Khojasteh and Robert Swan.

A further four QE boys achieved silver, eight gained bronze and three were highly commended. “The boys have been training for this competition for two years,” said Gillian Ridge, Head of Biology. “Their achievements reflect the hard work they have put in, attending weekly preparation sessions, and they are to be commended on their efforts.”

As part of the training, boys produced presentations, discussion topics and tests to build up the knowledge and skills required for the Olympiad. “All the members of the team have contributed to the achievements of the group as a whole and used the opportunity to widen their interest in Biology,” added Dr Ridge.

The competition, run by the Society of Biology, aims to “challenge and stimulate Britain’s most talented students to expand and extend their talents”.

All the medal winners have been invited to an awards ceremony at the Royal Society, where Professor Alice Roberts will be the guest speaker. She is Professor of Public Engagement in Science at the University of Birmingham and has presented a number of BBC2 programmes including Coast and Origins of Us.

Viraj Mehta has won the QE Year 7 poetry competition with a “confident and highly polished” performance.

Every pupil in Year 7 was required to give a performance reading of a poem based on this year’s theme of conflict.

Viraj presented the poem For the Fallen by Robert Lawrence Binyon. First published in September 1914, it contains the famous verse adopted by the Royal British Legion as an exhortation for ceremonies of remembrance:

They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old:
Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn.
At the going down of the sun and in the morning
We will remember them.

“He was a well-deserved winner,” said Assistant Head of English Victoria Maule, who organised the competition. “He gave a truly remarkable performance, which was wonderfully confident.”  

The first-round readings took place during lessons. Teachers scored each pupil's performance out of 20, based on as assessment of expression, dramatic interpretation, gesture, clarity, pace and timing, awareness of audience, eye contact, volume and intonation. 

The top-scoring six boys from each class went through to the semi-finals; these took place during lunchtime and were judged by Ms Maule and Mr Morrison.  The 12 pupils who achieved the highest scores progressed to the final, which took place in the main School Hall and was judged by A-level English students, Adam Hilsenrath (the School Captain) and Rubin Khojasteh.

Each year a different theme is selected for the competition. This year the boys were free to select any poem based on conflict, providing it did not exceed 25 lines in length. Alternatively they could read an extract of up to 25 lines from a longer poem. For the semi-finals and final, pupils were expected to have learnt the poem by heart.

"The performance of the finalists this year was very impressive,” said Ms Maule. “The boys demonstrated a mature engagement with the emotional dynamics of the theme, which enhanced the delivery and interpretation of their chosen poems. The competition is instrumental in celebrating the live nature of poetry as an art form, and encouraging boys to engage sensitively and intellectually with language and verse.”

Queen Elizabeth’s School is celebrating after its Head of Mathematics was awarded an MBE in the Queen’s Birthday Honours.

Fauziah Scarisbrick, who is known as Gee, receives the award for ‘services to Education’ after spending her entire 31-year teaching career at QE.

In that time, QE has changed from an undersubscribed comprehensive to the country’s leading boys’ grammar school. Mrs Scarisbrick has played a significant part in this transformation, with her pupils consistently achieving excellent examination results, thanks to a combination of her inspirational teaching and to the high expectations she has of them.

Mr Enright said: “I was delighted to hear that Gee had been awarded the MBE; it is a fitting accolade, crowning an illustrious career characterised both by her loyalty to the School and her commitment to the highest educational standards.

“Literally thousands of boys have cause to be grateful for the positive influence which she has had, directly or indirectly, upon their progress, development and future. She has exemplified the aim of our 1573 charter, educating boys in manners as well as learning.”

The announcement of her MBE comes just six months after the school’s Chairman of Governors, Barrie Martin, received a similar award in the New Year’s Honours.

Characteristically modest, Mrs Scarisbrick initially considered quietly declining the MBE, but thought that would mean letting her colleagues down. “This has been a very special moment for my family and I am extremely honoured to receive the award,” she said. “I have worked with many wonderful individuals over the years at QE and it is through their dedication that our school has become one of the foremost in the country. This award is for everyone at QE, past and present.”

Appointed in January 1983 after graduating from the University of Kent, Mrs Scarisbrick became Assistant Head of Mathematics in 1994 and then Head of the department in 1999. She took over leadership of Mathematics from Colin Price, who is now QE’s Second Master. Indeed, Mr Price has seen her career at very close hand, since she has worked with him in the Mathematics department for 28 years and was his deputy there.

“At all points of the School’s development, she has demanded and secured the highest standards from pupils and colleagues alike, leading always by personal example,” said Mr Price. “Giving selflessly of her time and energy, she plans every lesson in meticulous detail. Boys enjoy her lessons, learn effectively and make outstanding progress.”

Under Mrs Scarisbrick’s leadership, the Mathematics department has excelled, even by the elevated academic standards of QE. In 2013, every pupil in Year 11 achieved grade A* or A in Mathematics, while all 110 A-level Mathematics candidates achieved grade B or above.

Yet, says the Headmaster, there is more to her success than diligence and professional firmness of purpose. “Teachers never truly succeed unless they genuinely care for the children in their charge. As a personal mentor, Gee has guided many pupils through periods of difficulty, showing great warmth and sensitivity. She would say that she has simply been doing her job, but the boys, parents and her colleagues know that it runs much deeper.”

As the longest-serving teacher, Mrs Scarisbrick is currently Mother of the Common Room and is the only member of staff who has worked with four Headmasters. She was appointed by Timothy Edwards, promoted to Assistant Head of Mathematics by Eamonn Harris and appointed Head of Mathematics when John Marincowitz became Headmaster.

“As her career moves into its latter stages, there could be no more fitting tribute to her than the public recognition and appreciation signified by the award of this MBE,” said Mr Enright.

Mrs Scarisbrick, who lives in Potters Bar, will be presented with her award in an investiture ceremony at Buckingham Palace, when she will be accompanied by her husband and two sons.