2022: our wonderful year

Merry Christmas and season’s greetings to our alumni from all of us at Queen Elizabeth’s School! It was good to catch up with several of you at the Tudor Hall reception before this week’s Carol Service and to see alumni at the Winter Concert at the start of this month.

This has been a highly successful term, capping a memorable year. In fact, as I told HRH The Duke of Gloucester in my formal address during his historic visit last month, 2022 has been an annus mirabilis for QE – a wonderful year and a year of wonders!

We got off to a joyous start, having been named State Secondary School of the Year for 2022 by The Sunday Times. May’s opening festival for The Friends’ Recital Hall and Music Rooms was a great celebration – as the many alumni who came along can attest. Just weeks after that, Ofsted confirmed our status as an ‘outstanding’ school. It was then tremendous to celebrate with our senior boys their truly stunning A-level and GCSE results in August. Following the first set of public examinations since the pandemic, a remarkable 98.3% of A-levels taken received grades A*-B (and 70.8% were at A*) – a performance that only this week was adjudged the best in the country in The Sunday Times Parent Power survey.

The death on 8th September of Queen Elizabeth II suddenly brought home to us all the extraordinary nature of her seven decades of exemplary service. At QE, the tradition of service is nowhere better exemplified than in the work of The Friends of Queen Elizabeth’s. If you have not already read our new FQE Impact Report, please take a moment to look through it.

While royalty thus brought us a period of sadness at the start of the term, it also brought great joy towards the end. Coming almost exactly 90 years after the visit of Prince George to open our then-new Queen’s Road site, the visit of his nephew, the Duke, was timed to herald our 450th anniversary celebrations in 2023. It was a singularly happy occasion, with our visitor showing a ready appreciation of the boys’ endeavours – he even tried his hand at driving some robots, as well as planting an anniversary oak and presenting me with a ceremonial banner that we commissioned.



Another happy occasion – if not necessarily a successful one in terms of the scores! – was our annual fixture against Haberdashers’ Boys’ School at the StoneX stadium. It was good to see so many old boys enjoying the rugby and meeting up with friends. My thanks go to all alumni who have actively supported the School this term. Ten Year 12 pupils have been benefitting from WhyOhYou – a five-week personal development programme run by the philanthropic DVS Foundation, set up by the parents of Priyan Shah (OE 1991–1998). The support for our online university mock interview programme was tremendous: some 40 interviewers were Old Elizabethans and they conducted 90% of the 125 interviews with our Year 13s. A magnificent effort! As we now look forward with excitement to our 450th anniversary year, if you have not already entered your name for the ballot for seats at the special service on the day of the anniversary itself, Friday 24th March 2023, I invite you to do so.

With best wishes for the holidays.

Neil Enright

Headmaster

2023 Careers Convention: help us inspire the boys!

Our Year 11 Careers Convention has a new format and a new time this year – it takes place during the day on Wednesday 8th February, 2023. But we would still like OE volunteers to come in and talk informally to the boys about their careers, inspiring and guiding them they think about their future options. We’re also planning in some time in the afternoon for alumni and other guests to mingle and network. If you may be able to help, please email using the link below, or get in touch via QE Connect or LinkedIn.

Join our 450 Club

As we enter our big anniversary year, the 450 Club is still open to new members. To join the ranks, just commit to donating £450 or more – and you don’t have to do it all in one go! You could give your payments a 450th anniversary theme – at £45.00 a month it would take ten months, or at £15.73 monthly, it’s 29 months. Alternatively, to pay over a year, your monthly payment would be £37.50. The benefits of joining include the chance to name a seat in The Robert Dudley Studio once it’s completed and we will send you a complimentary copy of Dr John Marincowitz’s brilliant history of the School.

Seizing the chance to make a direct impact

For a reminder of just how much he benefitted from the generosity of alumni and other benefactors, Alex Liangas (OE 2005–2012) just thinks of the FQE-funded Martin Swimming Pool. “The new pool opened when I was in Year 8 and I have fond memories of competing in inter-House water polo tournaments there. It was easy to see the contrast with the old one that humorously I remember being filled by a garden hose during the summer months. So, the direct impact of contributions is very clear in my mind! The opportunity to contribute to the 450 Club was particularly appealing."

Alex, a manager in PwC’s Deals, Value Creation, Data & Analytics and Modelling Team, attended May’s opening of The Friends’ Recital Hall and Music Rooms: “A no-brainer! The talent on show from the boys made for a great evening, and it brought back fond memories of music at the School and the great opportunities it gave, including trips to Boston, Paris and the Rhineland.” He also enjoyed catching up with classmates (“still some of my closest friends”) at this term’s OE Association Dinner.

School history book launch: your invitation

  Former Headmaster John Marincowitz’s definitive new history of the School is being unveiled with a special launch on Wednesday 1st March as part of our 450th Club anniversary celebrations. All alumni are invited – just click on the link below for more details and to reserve your free place. As well as readings, an audience Q&A and the chance to see archive materials including QE’s original royal charter, you can ask Dr Marincowitz to sign your copy. If you haven’t ordered yours yet, there’s still time to buy it from the FQE Shop at the discounted price of £35.

So much to do! School Captain’s 400th anniversary memories, half a century on

As current Year 12 pupil Darren Lee gets ready to take over as School Captain in our 450th anniversary year, we asked the 400th anniversary Captain, Iain Lanyon, for his memories of that momentous time. He began by saying that he had in fact had other plans for that year…

“I stayed on after my A-levels in 1972 to take Cambridge entrance exams in the autumn. I was, I think, the youngest in my year, so I wanted to take a year out,” he said. “In the end, I stayed the whole academic year 1972–73 as School Captain: it was the 400th anniversary and there was so much to do! Prefects were responsible for much of the discipline and organised all school break times and the junior assembly. I had to combine school work with part-time paid work (I was from a one-parent family and on free school meals).”

Distance no object for Dean Sandeep

He may be based almost 5,000 miles away from Queen Elizabeth’s School, but economist and academic Sandeep Mazumder is finding ways to be fully engaged in supporting his alma mater. Sandeep (OE 1993–2000) is the Dean of Hankamer School of Business at Baylor University, based in Waco, Texas. This term he not only gave an online talk to the young economists of the Gresham Society, but is also supporting QE’s programme for boys applying to American universities and arranged for his Head of International Admissions to offer mock interviews to all this year’s applicants.

Sandeep read Economics at St Catharine’s College, Cambridge (having first overcome the ‘curved ball’ of an interview conducted in German, one of his A-level subjects), and then went on to take a further Master’s and a PhD at John Hopkins. He served as professor and chair of the Department of Economics at another US university, Wake Forest, in North Carolina, spending 12 years of his career there, before being appointed last year to his current position at Baylor, a private Christian institution in the top rank of US research universities. With dozens of articles in academic journals to his name, Sandeep is also the author of a macroeconomics textbook published in March and an associate editor for the Journal of Macroeconomics.

From strength to strength

Akash Vaghela is continuing to grow and refine his fitness business – now billed as “the only place in the world entirely focused on helping you not only get into shape, but on learning how to stay in shape”. RNT Fitness has transformed more than 3,000 lives in more than 25 countries, says Akash (OE 2003–2010) – and fellow Elizabethans number among some of his most satisfied customers.

450th anniversary Founder’s Day Fete: calling Old Elizabethans!

The FQE Founder’s Day Fete steering group are asking for alumni help and ideas to make the 450th anniversary fete on Saturday 17th June 2023 even more special than normal. Whether it’s offering sponsorship, buying advertising space in the fete brochure or volunteering to help at a stall on the day, they would like to hear from you. They’re especially open to suggestions and practical help with the entertainment and attractions. So, if you could broker a celebrity visit or arrange something spectacular to wow the crowds, please get in touch with the Development Office and we’ll pass it on. And of course, we’re looking forward to seeing large numbers of OEs come along as visitors to join the anniversary celebrations: please make a note of the date now!

“In a world of wannabes, Woods is the real deal”

Until recently, Ali Woods was, as one reviewer put it, PR man by day, comedian by night. Better known to his QE contemporaries as Alister Heywood (OE 2005–2012), he first made a name on TikTok and then gained a big boost when his debut solo show at this year’s Edinburgh Fringe sold out amid five-star reviews.

Now underpinned by his huge online following, he has given up the day job and become a professional comedian.

Divided loyalties?

When QE’s U15A rugby players took on Claires Court School in Maidenhead, in the National Bowl competition, they had more than one reason to enjoy the day. Not only did they win by an impressive 23-0 margin, but they also had two OEs watching them from the touchline. Pictured with the QE boys is Tom Aggar (1995–2002), who teaches in the independent school’s science department. Tom took gold in the 2008 Beijing Paralympics men’s single sculls rowing. The second OE spectator was Marc Piggott, who was at QE in the late 1970s to early 1980s. He is Claires Court’s Head of Grounds, having previously worked in golf course management at clubs in Hertfordshire, Berkshire and Dublin. Tom and Marc share a passion for rugby. Marc remembers well both the former Head of Games David Maughan and the late Eric Shearly, another PE department luminary, who devoted 76 years of his life to the School as pupil and teacher before retiring in 1984. Tom enjoyed meeting the visiting players – “It brought back a lot of great memories of my time at QE playing rugby” – and confessed afterwards that he had not been too disappointed at the result!

From Hogwarts to the Big Apple

Senior accountant Raj Bavishi (1995–2002) works for global audit and consulting firm Mazars in New York, a city he has long made his home. But this term he made a visit back to QE with his family – and received a friendly challenge from the Headmaster.

“Raj has a talent for bringing people together,” said Mr Enright “so I have challenged him to help us develop an OE network in the Big Apple.”

Best in the world: Samuel’s new role at the Premier League

Samuel Akpan’s efforts to build a career in sports have received a major boost with his securing of a long internship at the Premier League. Sam (OE 2011–2018) won an 18-month placement at the world’s most-watched sports league, where he will spend six months each in three departments. And he is not the only Old Elizabethan at the Premier League: Piers Martin (1987–1994), son of Chairman of Governors Barrie Martin, is currently the league’s Head of Leadership and Academy Workforce Development.

Life in the law

Sam Lester (OE 1995–2001) gave a well-received talk in the Main Hall to Year 12 on life in the law, getting the most out of school and career planning. Sam is European Counsel for corporate and investment bank TD securities. Before joining TD Securities in 2020, Sam was a Legal Director for Investment Banking and Capital Markets at Credit Suisse, covering Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EMEA). And before that, he worked as Vice President–Investment Banking Legal (EMEA) at global investment banking firm, Jefferies.

And finally…

We trust you have enjoyed reading this edition of the QE Connect e-magazine produced by QE for all our old boys. What next? Well, if you haven’t already discovered QE Connect, our online social and business network, why not take a look.