Queen Elizabeth’s School has been named the country’s leading boys’ state school in the Sunday Times’ Parent Power listings.
QE is in second place overall among the 2,000 schools surveyed, narrowly behind The Henrietta Barnett School, the selective girls’ school in Hampstead.
The influential guide is based on the percentage of A-levels awarded grades A*–B and on GCSEs given the top grades of 9, 8 or 7 in the new English and Mathematics examinations, and A* or A in other subjects. QE’s A-level figure of 96.0% was a little ahead of Henrietta Barnett’s, while the GCSE figure, 91.6%, was slightly behind.
Headmaster Neil Enright said: “The Parent Power Schools Guide results provide confirmation of the very high levels we reach at QE. I am most grateful to my colleagues on the staff, the boys’ parents, our governors, alumni and the School’s wider community of friends who all contribute so much to create the scholarly and supportive environment in which our boys thrive.”
This summer’s A-level results maintained a long record of performance at the very highest level, with the proportion of A*–B grades having topped 95% in every year since 2005. Sixth-formers took major changes in A-levels introduced by national education reforms in their stride, with 41% of A* grades being achieved – an increase on the previous year.
Similarly, Year 11 boys shrugged off changes including the new GCSE grading system. The 2017 GCSE results were the School’s best ever, with a record 70% of examinations taken achieving the very highest grades of A* or the equivalent 8 and 9.
“Such stellar performances are, of course, impressive and they help our boys gain places at the world’s best universities, but they do not tell the whole story,” said Mr Enright. “In delivering an education at QE, our focus is not narrowly on achievement in examinations but on fulfilling the much broader mandate of our stated mission to “produce young men who are confident, able and responsible’.”
“Through our carefully planned programme of academic enrichment, we seek to foster habits of intellectual curiosity and to nurture an atmosphere of scholarship that takes boys well beyond the confines of the classroom syllabus as they progress through the School. One example of this is the regula r series of academic symposia in which our boys meet up with girls from high-achieving partner schools – including our good friends at Henrietta Barnett – to discuss and debate ideas and contemporary issues.”
QE is also notable for the great emphasis placed on extra-curricular activities beyond the classroom – the School has a wide range of clubs and activities as well as many opportunities in sport, music and drama. “We strongly encourage all our boys to throw themselves into such aspects of School life,” said Mr Enright. “Our recent poetry-themed music concert and our acclaimed performances in the Shakespeare Schools Foundation’s annual festival are examples of our success in the performing arts, while our young sportsmen enjoy UK and overseas tours, as well as a competitive fixture list and inter-House competitions.
“Our aim is that the very bright boys who come here should fulfil their potential and, in so doing, that they should flourish and have fun. To that end, we have developed a strong pastoral care system which helps boys give of their best while also ensuring that we monitor their welfare carefully and that expert assistance is on hand for pupils who start to struggle for any reason.”