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Anthony Anaxagorou (OE 1994-99) is increasingly making a name for himself as a poet, prose writer, playwright, performer and educator. The School welcomed him back to speak to a number of Year 10 classes about his work as both a writer and teacher.

Anthony, who has just published his latest volume of short stories entitled The Blink that Killed the Eye, started writing poetry in his teens. At 17, he won the prestigious Mayor of London's Poetry Slam with his poem Anthropos.

He was initially inclined towards a career in music and studied Music Production at the University of Westminster. Quickly realising that this was not for him – and after a short period supporting himself with odd jobs including warehouse work – he committed himself to working full-time as a poet.

In 2009 he published his first book, Card Not Accepted – a collection of essays, short stories and poetry, all reflecting moments from his life and providing a commentary on western living. In May of that year the MOBO award-winning hip hop artist Akala chose Anthony’s short poem Himself, from the Card Not Accepted collection, to be read out on the BBC Newsnight programme by the actor Damian Lewis:

A man stands inside the noise of the world,
But all he hears is peace,

A man stands inside the stillness of a virgin field,
But all he hears is noise,

All a man ever hears is himself

“We were delighted to receive a visit from Anthony,” said Assistant Head and English teacher, David Ryan. “Much of his work has a social and political edge to it and some of his work is far better than anything we are studying in the GCSE anthology!”

Much of Anthony’s work looks at the spiritual search for inner peace. It also encompasses themes that deal with politics, racism, history and philosophy. His work has attracted increasing admiration and attention and drawn testimonials such as this from The Sunday Times: “Look out for Anthony Anaxagorou … a near-spiritual experience.” and The Evening Standard: “One of the most powerful stage performances I’ve seen.”

Anthony runs creative-writing workshops in schools for the First Story educational trust. The organisation focuses on schools in which more than 50% of pupils are considered deprived, according to the Income Deprivation Affecting Children Index. Over the course of an academic year, each writer-in-residence leads weekly after-school workshops for a group of up to 21 pupils. The pupils’ writing is then published in a professionally produced anthology for each school; the schools host book launch events at which the students read their stories to their peers, friends, families and teachers.

He now has eight collections of poetry and short story collections in print. His poetry has appeared on BBC Youth Nation, BBC Newsnight, the British Urban Film Awards, BBC 6 Music and has been performed by Cirque du Soleil. His work has been studied in universities across the USA, the UK and Australia and has been translated into Spanish, Japanese and French.

For this year’s Shakespeare Schools Festival, QE boys took on one of the playwright’s most popular plays, Richard III. They performed an abridged 30-minute version to a packed audience at the Arts Depot in North Finchley.

The performance itself was the culmination of a process which included a special workshop organised by the festival at which the boys received tips and advice on acting techniques from a professional acting coach. They also enjoyed a half-day technical and dress rehearsal with professional technicians, as well as preparing at QE with assistance from the School’s Drama Co-ordinator Elaine White and Susannah Sweetman, Head of English.

The audience included parents, a number of members of staff and the Headmaster. “It was a thoroughly enjoyable evening,” said Mr Enright. “The boys worked hard in preparation, taking advantage of the opportunities on offer to them, and reaping their reward with a high-quality performance.”

The abridged version provided 18 roles for QE boys, with Alex Wingrave taking the part of one of the stage’s most well-known villains, Richard. Suraj Shah was cast as Lady Anne, with Miles Huglin as Buckingham and Timur Salim as Lord Hastings. Boys also had the opportunity to take on back-stage roles, with Finbar Gaffey and Alex Chinweze directing, and Shiras Patel as Stage Manager and also directing the lighting and sound.

The evening’s programme also included a performance of Twelfth Night by West Lea School and Macbeth by Alexandra Park School. The festival, which includes the Department for Education amongst its partners, is the UK’s largest youth drama festival, working with more than 1,000 schools and 150 professional theatres. Its patrons include Dame Judi Dench, Kwame Kwei-Armah and Lord Puttnam. Its aim is to offer students from all backgrounds the opportunity to perform Shakespeare on their local professional stage.

QE’s fencers came fourth in a junior regional championship after narrowly losing their semi-final match. 

Rufus Carruthers and Adam Chong, of Year 10, and Chung Chan, of Year 9, finished second in their pool group at the Hertfordshire & Cambridge Junior Team U16 Foil Championship, which featured 16 school and club teams. They held their own against a number of international fencers and overcame the challenge of an older QE team in the quarter-final, but were unable to defeat Verulam School from St Albans in the semi-final.

The older QE trio of Danny Martin, Craig Robertson and Jeremy Thomas, all from Year 11, also finished second in their pool group, but had to concede defeat in the quarter-final after a closely-fought match against their fellow Elizabethans. Eventually they were placed fifth.

“Both teams are to be congratulated,” said Mark Peplow, Head of Games. “The results reflect the hard work and commitment of all the boys involved.”

The boys train weekly at the School, with some also attending local fencing clubs. The QE coaching team has just been further strengthened by the recruitment of one of the coaches of the Three Rivers Young Blades Fencing Club, who won the Hertfordshire & Cambridge event. Prospective new fencers are welcome to come along and try out the sport: contact the coach Ralph Samwell, who runs sessions at the School, on [email protected] for further details.

Queen Elizabeth’s School has been named the best state school in the country in this year’s influential Sunday Times Parent Power league table.

As in 2013, QE again heads the table of the Top 200 State School in the national newspaper’s rankings, which are based on academic results.

Headmaster Neil Enright said: “We are delighted to receive this accolade, which represents a reward for a great deal of hard work on the part of both boys and their teachers.

“We remain fully committed to helping our pupils to excel in all areas of school life, including not only examination performance but also wider academic development and extra-curricular activities.”

QE boys once again performed very strongly at A-level, with the proportion of A*-B grades awarded reaching 96%. There were only a handful of C grades among the 471 A-levels taken this year and no pupil received any grade lower than a C.

At GCSE, the picture was similar: more than six out of every ten GCSEs taken at QE in 2013 were awarded the A* grade – for the third year in a row. In total, 98% of GCSEs in 2014 received grades A*-B, while 90% were at either A* (61%) or A (29%). All 176 Year 11 pupils achieved the Government benchmark of five A*-C passes including English and Mathematics, and 99% achieved either A* or A in Maths.

Two QE Sixth-Formers have been awarded prestigious engineering scholarships. Alex Norcliffe and Daniil Slavin, who are in Year 12, won their sought-after Arkwright Engineering Scholarships after completing a rigorous selection process.

“Part of the aim of the scheme is to identify the country’s future leaders in engineering and technical design,” said Dr Martin Thomas, Chief Executive of the Arkwright Scholarships Trust. “The scholarships are respected both by leading universities and companies including organisations such as Rolls-Royce, BAE Systems, Balfour Beatty and Microsoft Research.”

The scheme runs annually, attracting more than 1,200 entries for just 300 places. The scholarships include a £600 financial award to each student to enhance his A-level studies, as well as a range of activities to develop students’ understanding and experience of engineering.

To secure their scholarships, Alex and Daniil had to complete a detailed application form, a two-hour aptitude examination and an interview hosted by a top engineering university – in Alex’s case at Imperial College, London, and Brunel University, London, in Daniil’s.

The aptitude examination tested the boys’ flair and originality in solving engineering design problems. At the in-depth interview, they were asked about their career aspirations and had to discuss an engineering project they had conducted. During the interview day they took part in a team exercise to solve a hands-on engineering problem, working with students they had never met before.

The boys and their parents also had the opportunity to tour the engineering facilities at the host university and explore the diversity of engineering and related design careers and their importance to the UK economy.

The scholarships are funded by charitable donors including: The Reece Foundation (principal donors), The Lloyd’s Register Foundation, the Gannochy Trust, the Dulverton Trust, the Emmott Foundation and SFIA Educational Trust.

They were formally presented at a ceremony in Blackfriars, London, supported by The Institution of Engineering and Technology in October.

Supporters of Guy’s Trust are celebrating the opening of the charity’s first school in Nepal. The school in Dhikupokhari has been built as part of the trust’s commitment to commemorating the life of Guy Joseph (OE 1997-2002) through investment in education and conservation work.

Guy graduated from Newcastle University with a first-class degree in Marine Biology. After working for two years in East Timor and Indonesia he spent time in Cambodia and Nepal, where he saw the challenges facing disadvantaged children at first hand.

Following his death in a paragliding accident in the Pyrenees in 2011, aged just 25, his family established Guy’s Trust as a means of supporting causes close to his heart. This month’s opening of the Dhikupokhari school in central Nepal is the culmination of two years’ work, which began with an empty field. The official opening came three weeks after the third anniversary of Guy’s death.

The trust is also involved in a number of other education projects in Nepal. Work is just about to start at Bhalam on the third Guy Joseph Early Childhood Development Centre. The ground is ready to be blessed and the bricks are ready for the construction phase. The project was delayed slightly when a sinkhole appeared without warning close to the original site.

Another project that has been completed this year is the construction of a School Library in Armala, which was celebrated with a special inauguration ceremony.

The Guy’s Trust website is at www.guystrust.org, from which links to the trust’s Facebook page and Twitter feed are available.