The Elizabethan
From the Headmaster
Dear Parents,
The date of 19th March 2025 marked the fifth anniversary of UK schools being asked to close to pupils because of the COVID-19 pandemic. We thus abruptly began an unprecedented period of remote teaching – with various other mitigation measures then subsequently required, as the pandemic ebbed and flowed. It was a tumultuous time for us here at
Queen’s Road, throughout the UK and, indeed, across the whole world.
Our ambitious development plan, Building on Distinction, covering the years 2021–2025, was our roadmap to navigate the aftermath – and how wonderfully that has turned out! The period has seen our pupils enjoy continuing academic success at the very highest levels. We have seen the launch of our QE Flourish co-curricular
programme, ensuring that all boys get the most out of a rounded QE education. Superb facilities have been added to our campus – first the Friends’ Recital Hall and Music Rooms and, most recently, The Robert Dudley Studio. Our QE Futures programme is now well established, helping today’s young Elizabethans successfully find their path to the very best university courses or to other destinations also leading into world-class careers.
RIDING HIGH: 2025 School Captain Simardeep Sahota and his Year 12 friends celebrate at Senior Awards. See p3.
And, building on that experience of remote education gained during the pandemic, our digital strategy is ensuring that pupils can benefit fully from the enormous potential offered by technology. At its heart is our 1:1 programme, which is opening up fresh opportunities in teaching & learning for our pupils, while building the digital literacy skills they will need whatever their future aspirations.
Whilst reflecting on that five-year anniversary and on all the progress made at QE since, we are now very much thinking ahead to the next five years and to our goals for 2030. All parents have a big part to play in the process of establishing our next set of priorities. I was therefore gratified at the high numbers who completed our independent parent survey commissioned from specialist consultancy RSAcademics. We reported back to you on the results in a QE Update earlier this term: in this Elizabethan, you can read more about the findings. Suffice it to say that we were delighted to learn that not only have high levels of parental satisfaction been maintained since our similar survey in 2019, but that in a number of areas there have been increases. The investment in new music facilities, for example, has contributed to a significant rise – from an already high base – in satisfaction in the musical opportunities provided here.
building work started just over a year ago. It was exciting to see our young actors putting on our 2024–2025 Shakespeare Schools Festival entry, Richard III, as the first-ever School production there. We hope this investment will have a similar material impact on the QE experience, and the substantial number who auditioned for the next production, Oedipus Rex, has provided early encouragement.
QE’s
“ The next five years”
There continues to be real momentum with our Estates Strategy. The specialist theatrical lighting has been installed in The Robert Dudley Studio – the final element in that project, on which
“ Supporting wellbeing”
In these pages, we report for the first time on the results of our parallel pupil survey. We are acutely aware that the wellbeing of many children and young people in this country has been compromised in recent years in the context of the pandemic and developments in the online world. The current Netflix drama series, Adolescence, gives a horrifying picture of the challenges and threats that young men, in particular, face. Through the extensive pastoral work we do in our Personal Time Development programme, we aim to help boys navigate those dangers safely. Furthermore, the well-attended workshop for parents on screen dependency, led by former QE parent Munur Shah, is a good example of how committed we are to supporting families in this area. Rest assured that the wellbeing of pupils at QE remains front and centre in our thinking as we plan for the next five years.
Highlights of this term undoubtedly included news of the 49 offers secured from Oxford and Cambridge – a figure exceeded only by last year’s all-time
QE record. Alongside these results, huge numbers of Year 13 now hold offers from other world-renowned universities and for prestigious courses. There have also been notable successes in securing places at a leading music conservatoire, and on highly competitive degree apprenticeships, such as those offered by Deloitte and Goldman Sachs. It was very fitting that our Guest of Honour at Senior Awards was Professor Irene Tracey, Vice-Chancellor of the University of Oxford. This year’s total of 15 Oxford offers was very high – only one shy of our previous record. In a highly engaging address, she gave her own valuable perspective on wellbeing, telling the assembled award-winners that “the path to happiness in its truest sense” lay in putting “more into the world than you take out”. The volunteers of The Friends of Queen Elizabeth’s lent the School their invaluable support with hospitality on that evening, as they do unfailingly for all our major calendar events – of which there have been many this term. I was pleased, too, to see such strong support for the recent FQE Supper. We are fortunate indeed to enjoy the indefatigable backing of the Friends: I know they are always eager to welcome other parents on board, so please consider getting involved, if you have not already done so.
I trust all QE families will have an enjoyable break, and I wish all students in Years 11 to 13 every success as they study for their forthcoming GCSE, AS and A-level examinations.
Neil Enright Headmaster
SPORTING LIFE: The ski trip, QE Rugby Sevens and much more are covered in this term’s Sports Bulletin Click here to read
YOUTH EXPLORED:
latest series of TEDx talks by pupils – on the theme of Youth – are now live. Click here to read about the speakers and here to watch the talks.
Hold on to what is human: Oxford vice-chancellor at Senior Awards
The 2025 Guest of Honour at Senior Awards was the 273rd Vice-Chancellor of the University of Oxford – and she had a clear message for the 80-plus award-winners.
Professor Irene Tracey emphasised qualities such as kindness in her address, encouraging the boys to use their gifts and top-quality education responsibly, showing confidence but not arrogance.
In his own speech, the Headmaster also stressed the human side: “Even in an increasingly technological age – in which algorithms and AI possess
so much potential – human creativity, ingenuity and imagination will continue to be important.”
Years 10, 11 & 12 Music award-winners, Parth Jain, Rishi Watsalya and Leo Sellis provided entertainment during the evening, which was attended by VIPs including the Mayor of the Borough of Barnet Councillor Tony Vourou and Mayoress Mrs Caroline Vourou.
Lift-off in space competition
Twelve senior boys were winners at the national finals of the UK Space Design Competition.
Oxbridge joy – again!
The 49 offers from Oxford and Cambridge received this year brings the total number of Oxbridge places offered to QE boys over the past three years to 157.
The 2025 figure, comprising 34 offers from Cambridge and 15 from Oxford, is exceeded only by last year’s all-time record of 62 offers.
The offers came from 25 colleges large and small, with the single highest number – five – from Gonville & Caius at Cambridge. The courses range from Oxford’s famous Philosophy, Politics and Economics (PPE) degree to Architecture and Materials Science.
Ten of the offers were for Medicine, nine for Mathematics. The five offers for Computer Science constitute a new QE record.
QE’s high-flying Year 11 and 12 competitors arrived at Imperial College London having already won the regional finals of the competition. At the nationals, competitors from multiple schools were assigned into ‘companies’ and tasked with designing an asteroid belt settlement called ‘Astoria’. The QE contingent joined the Olympus Mons Trading Company, which duly won.
More than 100 parents across all year groups attended an online safety workhop. Led by Munur Shah, a former QE parent, the session focused on screen dependency. Mr Shah, a life coach, NLP practitioner & mentor, recently wrote a book, Screen Addict, to help parents with children trapped or isolated by this issue.
Deputy Head (Pastoral) David Ryan said: “We were delighted to welcome a speaker as knowledgeable as Munur. The tips and techniques he offered will undoubtedly be highly beneficial.”
Over to you! Gaining the views of parents and pupils
Survey results will help QE shape priorities for 2026–2030 School plan
To ascertain families’ views systematically, the School commissioned a parental survey from specialist consultancy RSAcademics, while conducting its own survey of pupils.
Here, we give further details of the parental survey, following our QE Update earlier this term, while also revealing results of the pupil survey. Similar surveys were conducted in 2019.
The Headmaster says: “We were very pleased at the very high response rates – 69% for the parents – which RSAcademics tell us is simply excellent – and an even higher 80% (1,047 boys) for our students. A comparison between
2019 and 2024 reveals that the alreadyhigh levels of satisfaction among parents have been maintained, with no sign that the inevitable disruption of the pandemic years damaged the School.”
The parental survey provided an opportunity for parents to add their own comments. “While there were paeans of generalised praise for the School, I was particularly pleased to read specific insights into how QE was performing well,” said Mr Enright. “Among the boys, with wellbeing and mental health such an area of concern in society at large, it was hugely encouraging to read that the vast majority of our pupils are happy and get on well with each other.”
PARENTS
Amid the extensive similarity between the 2019 and 2024 results, there are areas in which a marked uplift is evident, with musical provision being one notable example. The interval between the two parent surveys has seen considerable improvement in the Music facilities with the opening of the Friends’ Recital Hall and Music Rooms.
As RSAcademics’ summary put it: “There are no significant causes of dissatisfaction, and the school significantly outperforms our key benchmarks.” Two areas in which
“ The school provides ample opportunities for students to excel in arts, technology, sports, languages, and music.”
PUPILS
The survey responses were, perhaps, at their most emphatic in answer to the question: Please tell us how you feel the School is helping you to develop the following qualities and skills. Listed were: honesty & integrity; mutual respect & kindness; personal moral code; resilience; responsibility; self-confidence; selfdiscipline; self-reliance & independence. All generated hugely positive responses, with 88%–96% endorsements. For most other questions, where these were the same as those in 2019, there was a smaller, but still noticeable, uplift in the responses. One major change since 2019 has been the launch of the 1:1 programme. The statement QE encourages me to make effective and safe use of internet-enabled devices generated an 84% positive response rate. With dialogic learning a recent area of development, 81% agreed that ‘classroom discussions support my learning’ in every lesson or most lessons. Out of lessons, 86% agreed that they ‘regularly take part in School activities…such as clubs, sports, music and art’ – another new question. Pastorally, 94% said they felt safe while at School ‘all the time’ or ‘most of the time’. The final question asked simply: Overall, how happy are you at QE? Nearly four-fifths said they were ‘very happy’ or ‘quite happy’.
QE performed less well in relative terms were: provision of food and the provision for non-musical creative and performing arts. The Headmaster said: “We have already been addressing these, by, for example, making a significant recent investment into creating The Robert Dudley Studio, which is already delivering new opportunities. We do recognise that our increased pupil roll has put some pressure on our catering facilities: expanding space available for dining is part of our longer-term Estates Strategy.”
PARENTAL SURVEY:
2019–2024 change in those rating the following areas as ‘very good’:
Provision of musical opportunities
Friendliness between pupils
The School’s state of repair and appearance
PUPIL SURVEY:
‘strongly agree’ or ‘agree’
“Superb league table ranking, fantastic GCSE and A-level results. High intake for Oxbridge, culture of meritocracy. Extra-curricular and co-curricular
activities in abundance. It compared very, very well to an independent school – without the fees attached.”
QE encourages me to look after my physical health:
PARENT’S QUOTE
QE encourages me to look after my emotional and mental health:
There is an adult at School I can talk to if something is worrying me:
Acing the Mace!
A Year 13 team won the Greater London regional finals of the English-Speaking Union's Mace debating competition.
Following their triumph at Lady Eleanor Holles School, Chanakya Seetharam, Saim Khan, Zaki Mustafa, Koustuv Bhowmick and Rohan Kumar now progress to the national finals in Dartmouth House in London’s Mayfair at the end of this month. English
teacher and Enrichment tutor Lev Crofts wrote: “They've now won three rounds of this prestigious competition – fending off teams including St Paul's, Merchant Taylors’ and South Hampstead High School – and they did an incredible job in the regional finals.“
Chemystery collaboration Lyrical youngsters
Year 7 boys from QE teamed up with counterparts from The Totteridge Academy for a partnership event – the Chemystery Conundrum. Involving some 60 boys and girls, the activity in QE’s laboratories looked at drug design, challenging teams to find ways to get a medicine to dissolve in the stomach in 20 seconds.
The Queen’s Library hosted an event for Year 5 children from six local primary schools focusing on creative writing and encouraged reading for pleasure. It began with a quiz on choosing a book, touching areas such as cover designs, ‘blurbs’ and genres.
Sixth-formers Aarav Agarwal and Simi Bloom then led a writing session.
Unpacking Berlin’s past
Informed by their lessons on the Cold War and the Nazis, 25 Year 10 History students headed for Berlin. History teacher & Head of Year 10 John Haswell said: “There is something powerful about physically seeing the layers of history in a city that has seen incredibly difficult times and is now working to remember the past, while looking to the future.”
Eloquence on three continents
The passion for debate at QE burns bright: boys have been joining Model United Nations events from the Gulf to the USA.
Closer to home, the 58th Elizabethan Union Dinner Debate produced lively interaction from the floor and high-quality debate from the teams on the motion This House believes social media is harming our democracy. Returning OEs Sudhamshu Gummadavelly and Ashwin Sridhar, who left in 2023, defeated Year 13’s Saim Khan and Zaki Mustafa, who were proposing the motion.
Seven Year 13 debaters arranged their swansong trip to the Dubai International Academy MUN, winning a certificate for QE as a top-performing School. Koustuv Bhowmick took a Best Delegate award; Chanakya Seetharam and Uday Dash won Best Position Paper awards. Year 11’s Keshav Aggarwal was one of only seven delegates to win a Best Delegate award at the prestigious MUN hosted by Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). Younger pupils joined HABSMUN – at Haberdashers’ – while Year 11’s Vu-Lam Le Nguyen was among 560 delegates at the LSE for the London Youth MUN.
Praised to the hilt
QE’s abridged version of Richard III drew fulsome plaudits when it was performed at North Finchley’s Artsdepot in this year’s Shakespeare Schools Festival.
Independent theatre and opera director Callie Nestleroth wrote a 350-word appraisal of the production, lauding it as “brilliant” and “a joy to watch” and congratulating the School on delivering “an edgy, nuanced, and poignant Richard III from a professional and creative cast”.
That cast comprised 14 boys from Years 10–13, with final-year student Robin Bickers in the title role. Other actors included Year 11’s Daniel Kollo as both Clarence and Buckingham, Akshay Shah, of Year 10, taking on various roles, including King Edward IV, and Aahan Shah, of Year 11, as Queen Elizabeth. Year 10’s Kiran Wright was the stage manager.
According to Callie Nestleroth’s appraisal, the cast impressed with the “depth and emotional complexity” they brought to the production.
“The way you streamlined and modernised the play felt both bold and inspired, breathing new life into a classic text,” she wrote. “The creativity you brought to the battle scene…was a standout moment. Instead of relying on props as weapons, the actors’ physicality and movement became the primary means of establishing threat and violence.
“It was evident that you all worked together to bring your vision of the play to life.”
RDS comes into its own
Richard III this term became the first QE production to be staged in The Robert Dudley Studio.
With the theatrical lights now installed, the new 200-seat drama and spokenword facility is taking its place as a key QE venue.
Its flexibility was demonstrated again when it was used to host a regional round of the English-Speaking Union’s Performing Shakespeare competition for Year 8 pupils.
And the studio was also the venue for this year’s visit by Onatti, an educational theatre troupe who perform plays in French. Their production was watched by boys in Years 8 and 9.
All aboard for the theatre!
The whole of Year 9 saw Hollywood A-lister Sigourney Weaver starring in The Tempest at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane. It was the first time an entire QE year group has gone on a theatre trip. Year 12 English Literature students saw another sell-out Shakespeare production – Richard II at the Bridge Theatre, Bermondsey – and visited the Globe Theatre: both trips were part of a joint two-day event with The Henrietta Barnett School.
Eton Fives on the rise
Eton Fives has been in the ascendant in recent years, helped by OE Sunil Tailor (1999–2006), himself an accomplished player, coming in to run sessions. In 2022, the Fives pair of Yash Kedia and Zayn Phoplankar won the U14 Novices National Schools Championship, going on
From the archives: a game of two halves
The history of the handball game, Fives, at QE goes back 145 years – but with a 22year gap in the middle.
The original courts (pictured) opened in 1880 at QE’s old Wood Street premises, at a cost of some £200. Successive editions of The Elizabethan detail some extensive fundraising, including a fund-raising “entertainment”. Two courts were built in the Winchester style (with one angled wall, therefore somewhere between the unbroken surfaces of a large Rugby Fives court and the multiple obstacles of Eton Fives). In November 1880, an editorial in The Elizabethan stated: “We cannot but notice how that nearly every boy in the school, great or small, who is known
to have any energy about him, takes very kindly to Fives.”
For half a century, the game thrived, with Headmaster William Lattimer (1906–1929) boosting its profile.
The Elizabethan for 1931 records extensive results from senior, junior and House competitions. All that changed abruptly the following year, when QE moved to its current premises in Queen’s Road, where there was no court.
It was not until the post-war rebuilding programme of 1951–1952 that plans were drawn up for a single new court, to be placed behind the junior cloakroom (now the print room) to the right after coming in through the main entrance. By
1954, it was ready, this time in the style of an Eton court because “there was not room for one of the Rugby type” (Elizabethan Headmaster, 1930–1961 by E H Jenkins). The Governors drew from the legacy of G. W. N. Harrison, a Master from 1888 until 1929 – one of the Harrisons after whom Harrisons’ House is named.
Notwithstanding the quip in the July 1954 Elizabethan that it provided “a purpose for odd gloves”, Fives soon “gained a status which puts it on an equal footing with cricket, rugby, swimming, and athletics”. QE was affiliated to the Eton Fives Association in 1954, entering the Public Schools Championships the following year. David
to become fully-fledged national U15 champions in 2023. That same year, QE won the coveted Team of the Year Award from the Eton Fives Association. The long-cherished hope to add a second court could be fulfilled in the not-too-distant future through the new Estates Strategy.
Lowen (OE 1957–1964) wrote in his memoirs: “You could book this court to play in play breaks (often barehanded). The bounce was sometimes a bit odd because of the paving.”
A wide-ranging c.1964 document, Summary of Plans for Remodelling envisaged two Fives courts “both together and both new”. This proposal was, however, never carried out; instead, a corrugated roof and lights were added to the existing court. The court remains covered today.
Parth’s AI passion Soham’s route to success
Year 11’s Parth Aggarwal spoke at the 2025 BETT UK education technology exhibition about his AI-driven Navigate Ninja app for children with autism. The invitation came after he won a national prize in the Intel Global Impact Festival.
Year 12’s Soham Kale came first in Medic Mentor Magazine’s essay competition, humorously contrasting cell-mapping with his parents’ refusal to use sat nav.
Hearing from the experts
Since it featured a slew of academics from Britain’s leading universities, the Year 12 Academic Symposium proved to be aptly named.
Organised by QE sixth-formers Ved Nair and Vinujan Sivakumar, it brought together pupils from QE with those from Queen Elizabeth’s Girls’ School for an evening to hear from the experts on their higher education and career interests. (North London Collegiate School were expected but were thwarted when a fire broke out that morning.)
Ved and Vinujan mustered two professors and three doctors among the seven distinguished main speakers, covering Mathematics, Economics & Finance, Natural Sciences, Politics & Law, Medicine, Engineering and Languages. They were each asked to give a talk on a topic of their choice within their field and provide some career advice.
Among them was Dr Mark Christiansen, Head of Genomics at UCL, who attended with his UCL colleague, Oliver Rushton. Afterwards, Dr Christiansen wrote:” I was overwhelmed by the high knowledge level of these proactive nextgeneration scientists and medics in my interactive talk/workshop.”
The speakers included Old Elizabethan, Maanan Gordhandas (2003–2010), who works in Leveraged Finance at Bank of America Merrill Lynch.
The Headmaster said: “This was a really successful event, with a good number of attendees, despite NLCS having to pull out. I thank Ved and Vinujan for all their work, and we are especially grateful to Maanan, who stepped in at short notice to fill a gap that arose for Economics & Finance.”
Other symposia and joint academic activities this term included:
• Sixth Form Philosophy Conference with NLCS
• Year 7 Eco-Symposium, also with NLCS
• Shakespeare symposium for Year 12 English Literature students, featuring the theatre trips mentioned on p7, plus a lecture, workshop and seminar sessions.
“Masterclass”
All Year 9 spent a day at a QE Futures event: Developing Employability Skills through Entrepreneurship. Led by education technology entrepreneur Amanda Slavin, boys worked in teams to create and then pitch a sustainable product to appeal to young people. Artem Batyukov said it had been “a masterclass in working in teams under time pressure”.
World-beating champions
Year 12’s Karan Somani and Samrath Sareen won a Schools Champion Award after completing the Financial Times Student Advocate Programme. It recognised their achievement in securing 94 sign-ups – more than any school worldwide. The FT’s Head of Visual & Data Journalism, Alan Smith, gave a lecture at QE.
Thirst for uni and career knowledge
Large numbers of alumni helped at two major events in the QE Futures calendar. The Year 11 Careers Convention featured cross-sector talks, workshops and a careers fair. For this week’s University Convention, last year’s leavers returned, giving the current Year 12 first-hand information on universities and courses.
Providing the soundtrack to life at QE Music enriches many of our most important times together
Whether celebrating happy occasions or lamenting sad events, and whether it is the formality of Senior Awards or the relaxed atmosphere of a Founder’s Day Fete, QE’s musicians are there to serve the Elizabethan community. Most of all, there are the concerts and competitions, where boys relish the chance to shine, while providing audiences with moments of pure pleasure. On these pages, The Elizabethan recounts important musical news from the term.
PRO CORDA CHAMPIONS
The Junior String Quartet won the junior category of the prestigious Pro Corda Chamber Music Competition. Schools nationally compete over
three months through qualifying and semi-final rounds (with some of these hosted by QE) to reach the grand final. This featured more than 40 groups performing this year at Woldingham School, Surrey.
Director of Music Ruth Partington said: “In the adjudication, it was noted that this was the largest Pro Corda ever, with the highest standard, so it really was a tremendous achievement for our quartet to win.” Year 9’s Eshaan Anil, Kevin Mao & Jeremy Shi, with Joseph Donovan, of Year 10, played Beethoven’s String Quartet No. 4 in C minor opus 18 movement I Allegro ma non tanto. They were awarded music bars in recognition of this success.
"We also had a violin trio (Jason Tao, Year 13; Ryuki Watanabe, Year 12; Noah Morley, Year 11) representing QE in the senior category, which is by far the most competitive – therefore getting into the final was also an amazing achievement,” Miss Partington added. They performed Christian Sinding’s Serenade No. 2 Op. 92 Movement II Andante sostenuto in F sharp minor and Igor Frolov’s Divertimento for 2 violins and piano.
A celebratory lunchtime concert was later held at School, with both ensembles performing their pieces.
MEMORIES IN MUSIC
The Choral and Chamber Charity Concert was dedicated to former Head of Rugby James Clarke (OE 1999–2004) upon news of his death in Bermuda in January. Held at Barnet’s St John the Baptist Church, it featured a performance of World in Union, the Rugby Union World Cup anthem, by the Chamber Choir with selected instrumentalists. The Barbershop group
SOUTH EAST SCHOOLS’ CHAMBER MUSIC COMPETITION FINALIST
Just a few days before the Pro Corda final, the violin trio who were to perform there played their pieces at the final of this competition, also highly respected in the music world. “Jason, Ryuki and Noah did very well to reach the final and played impressively in the crowded senior category, where they were up against the likes of Harrow and St Paul’s,” said Miss Partington.
sang The Road Home by Stephen Paulus (as they had done earlier that day at the memorial service). The concert alone raised £696 money for the RFU’s Rugby United charity, with others donating several hundred pounds through a dedicated JustGiving page At the memorial service, the Junior String Quartet played as the opening music the piece that won them their Pro Corda title.
OFFERS ABOUND FOR COMPOSING STAR
Year 13’s Harrison Lee has secured offers to study:
• Composition at the Royal Northern College of Music
• Composition at Trinity College of Music
• On the GRNCM/MusB joint course between the Royal Northern College of Music and Manchester University
Director of Music Ruth Partington said: “Receiving multiple offers to study at Music conservatoires is an absolutely superb achievement – there is fierce competition.”
In his inimitable fashion, Harrison thanked his Music teachers for their support – “one of the best parts of my experience at QE. When I'm a famous composer, I will always be grateful!”
OPPORTUNITIES FOR ORGANISTS
QE won a rare accolade, becoming only the second state school in the country – and the first in the south –to gain accreditation from the Royal College of Organists. It heralds a more formal partnership with the RCO, which supplied QE with a Viscount Chorum 40-S electric organ last year under its Organs in Schools programme. The School has consolidated its commitment to organ-playing by announcing that Year 9’s Zach Fernandes is the new Organ Scholar under QE’s partnership with Barnet’s parish church, with Noah Morley continuing as the other Organ Scholar.
GOING OUT IN STYLE
The Leavers’ Concert showcased Year 13’s talents. These ranged from the vocals of Joel Swedensky’s Maria, from West Side Story, and of Nikhil Mark’s Five Nights at Freddy’s with the Jazz Band, to Jason Tao’s virtuoso playing as first chair violin – not least during the orchestra’s performance of Harrison Lee’s composition, Of the Essence
The Headmaster said: “It was an amazing piece: stirring, moving, filmic, so professional.” Joel and Nikhil have been offered choral scholarships at Trinity, Cambridge, and Pembroke, Oxford, respectively.
VEX means victory!
QE teams returned in triumph from the VEX robotics national championships in Telford, with Team Rogue named overall champion for the Year 10 (VR5C) event and Team Constellation taking a coveted Design prize among the juniors (VIQRC).
Year 10 teams Rogue and Nova, with Year 9 teams Constellation and Omega, have all won places at next month’s World Championships in Dallas, Texas.
Team Rogue took not only the overall prize in Telford (working in partnership with a Haberdashers’ Boys’ team), but the Design Award, too. Team Nova won the Innovate Award, gaining their ‘worlds’ place through a high-ranking finish in the Skills Challenge. Team Omega won their division and were runners-up in the Overall Teamwork Championship.
Earlier in the term, QE followed up on hosting a VIQRC event in December by hosting a successful V5RC Battle of Barnet
And since Year 12 teams are unable to go to Dallas in May because of their examination commitments, QE’s Team Hybrid instead headed off to the CREATE US Open event in Iowa. Head of Digital Teaching & Learning Michael Noonan said: “It was an incredible honour for them to be awarded the Judges Award, making us the first UK team to win at this event. The team had an absolute blast!“
Five Year 12 pupils entered Náboj Math, an international competition, on their own initiative – and came third in the UK out of nearly 70 teams. Vinujan Sivakumar said: “In the London heat, we secured second place out of 20 highly competitive teams, missing the top spot by just two points to King’s College London Mathematics School.”
The same school went on to be overall UK winners. Competing with Vinujan at Dulwich College were teammates Ram Chockalingam, William Joanes, Joshua Wilkinson, and Sasen Kankanamge Don.
Time for tens
Halfway between Sevens and the full game, Rugby Tens originated in Malaysia and is popular in many Asian countries. Year 7 boys got their chance to try it in a Hertfordshire tournament in Berkhamsted, where they enjoyed mixed fortunes, but ended with a 3-0 victory over Queens’ School, Bushey.
For other sports news, including reports from QE’s Rugby Sevens tournament, see this term’s Sports Bulletin