Broughton have been crowned this year’s top House at Queen Elizabeth’s School, following intense competition in fields as diverse as architecture and dodgeball.
A strong performance at Sports Day helped Broughton overtake Pearce to claim overall victory as the leader of QE’s six houses – a victory announced to great excitement at the end-of-year House Assembly.
Broughton’s House Captain, Saifullah Shah, and Deputy House Captain, Jamie Watkin-Rees, both of Year 12, were duly presented with the coveted House Cup by Headmaster Neil Enright.
Mr Enright said afterwards: “It has been another year of outstanding endeavour among the Houses, which play such an important role in fostering teamwork and friendship. My sincere congratulations go to all Broughton boys on their hard-won victory.”
During the assembly, Year 12’s Kieran Dhrona and Rishi Shah gave a presentation on the extensive fund-raising that takes place during the year in support of various charities as well as QE’s long-
running Sai School Appeal, which aims to help the Sri Sathya Sai English Medium School in Kerala, India.
QE’s overall charity this year was the Great Ormond Street Hospital Charity, while there were also Christmas collections of food for the Chipping Barnet Foodbank and of clothing for a charity helping some of the 168,000 people homeless people in London.
Among the charity events staged were an inter-House dodgeball tournament run by Broughton and Harrisons’ for Years 7–9, which raised £280. Leicester and Pearce ran an interactive quiz for Years 7–10, raising £168. And Stapylton and Underne organised a guess-the-teacher baby photo competition, raising £87.70.
For the Sai School Appeal, a FIFA Tournament saw staff and pupils battle it out, games controllers in hand, in what was perhaps the most popular charity event of the year. One notable match included that between the Headmaster and the 2019 School Captain, Bhiramah Rammanohar.
The tournament raised £120.60, while a swimathon raised £609.65 and a guess-the-number-of-sweets-in-the-jar challenge at the Founder’s Day Fete brought in £62.
The House competitions reported on during the assembly included the:
- Year 7 House afternoon won by Stapylton
- In the Scoop news contest for Year 8 won by Pearce
- Languages competition, in which boys were challenged to design a poster about an influential linguist or speaker of German. French or Latin
- Architectural Enrichment Competition, won by Harrisons’
- QIQE quiz, won by Broughton in a tough final against Stapylton.
The assembly also reviewed other activities of the year.
For drama, as well as looking back at the performances at the Shakespeare Schools Festival and at the School Play, Lord of the Flies, the presentation revealed the names of boys who have successfully auditioned for roles in next term’s Shakespeare, The Merchant of Venice.
Hundreds of boys have taken part in musical extra-curricular activities during the year. There are currently more than 20 ensembles, many of them pupil-led, involving 150 singers and nearly 200 instrumentalists. The 35 winners of Music colours from across the year groups were announced.
The assembly celebrated the winners of the separate QE chess championships for Year 7 and for 
Years 8-11, as well as those who performed strongly in the UK Chess Challenge. Junior, intermediate and senior chess colours were presented.
A report on the Duke of Edinburgh Award revealed that 87 Year 11 boys completed their bronze awards. Twenty-six Year 12s finished their silver awards, while 11 Year 13s completed D of E at gold level.
In sport, the assembly covered the following highlights:
- Cricket: The Year 8 team reached the quarter-finals of the National Cup, where they lost on the last ball
- Rugby: The U16s won the Hertfordshire plate; several boys gained county honours and a successful tour to Holland took place
- Eton fives: Record levels of participation at QE brought encouraging successes at the sport’s national finals
- Athletics: Combined Year 7 & 8 and 9 & 10 teams reached regional finals, and stand-out individual performances were listed
- Water polo: Both the seniors and Year 10 reached their respective national cup plate finals.
‘Teams of the year’, comprising selections from across the year groups, were announced for cricket and rugby.