QE gains Accredited Archimedes Mathematical Thinking School title

Queen Elizabeth’s School has been named an Accredited Archimedes Mathematical Thinking School.

Bestowed by the organisation behind the Archimedes Awards Maths competition, the title recognises the School’s “outstanding commitment to mathematical thinking, intellectual curiosity, problem-solving and educational excellence”.

QE is one of only ten schools nationwide, across both the state and independent sectors, named among the latest recipients of this title. Its new status recognises not only the achievements of individual pupils, but also the environment created by the School’s leadership, teaching staff, and others.

Head of Mathematics Jessica Steer said: “I celebrate all the hard work of students and staff in our Maths community that has led to us gaining this accreditation.”

QE boys have enjoyed considerable success in the competition. They were overseen by Maths teacher Sammy Zhu, who liaised with the Archimedes Awards teams,

“I would like to thank Ms Zhu for all the work she has done to allow us to become so well recognised,” said Ms Steer.

The accreditation follows the completion of this year’s competition cycle and a review by the organisation’s academic council.

In its citation sent to QE, the Archimedes Awards organisation wrote: “The impact made by your students has been truly exceptional. Throughout the competition cycle, we have been consistently impressed by their enthusiasm for challenge, willingness to embrace complex problems and evident enjoyment of mathematics. These qualities speak highly of the culture within the school and played an important role in the academic council’s decision to offer this recognition.”

The Archimedes Awards are inspired by Archimedes of Syracuse – the most famous mathematician and inventor in ancient Greece.

He rigorously proved many geometrical theorems, including the area of a circle, the surface area and volume of a sphere, the area of an ellipse, the area under a parabola, the volume of a segment of a paraboloid of revolution, the volume of a segment of a hyperboloid of revolution, and the area of a spiral.

As well as building a planetarium, he is said to have designed innovative machines including a screw pump, compound pulleys, and war defence machines to protect Syracuse from invasion.