Biology teacher Sam Acors has won a Jack Petchey Leader Award after being nominated by his pupils.
QE is announcing the award to Dr Acors on National Thank a Teacher Day.
Headmaster Neil Enright said: “It seems especially fitting to be able to congratulate Sam today on this award, which is well deserved.
“It’s also an excellent opportunity to celebrate the immense contribution that all our hard-working, dedicated and inspirational staff make to the success of Queen Elizabeth’s School.”
Dr Acors joined QE last year after working as a post-doctoral researcher at Imperial College London. His doctorate from King’s College London was awarded in March 2024.
His pupils praised him for the good humour he brings to his teaching, as well as his supportive and nurturing approach.
Expressing his appreciation for the award today, he said: “It feels good to have made an impact on the students and be appreciated. I got into teaching to make a positive difference to young people’s lives, so having won an award that suggests I have influenced many of our pupils means a great deal to me. That being said, the students at QE are outstanding, so it makes our job as teachers that bit easier.”
The Jack Petchey Foundation was set up by entrepreneur Sir Jack Petchey, who died in 2024 at the age of 98. Since 1999, the foundation has been recognising and celebrating the achievements of young people across London and Essex.
The foundation’s Leader Awards recognise the ‘above and beyond’ commitment of adults who help young people. It encourages their schools and organisations to get the young people themselves involved in making nominations for the awards.
The Thank a Teacher campaign is run by the Teaching Awards Trust and has a vision to help create a society which values and celebrates “the great work that takes place in education every day across the UK”.
The Trust was established in 1998 by Lord David Puttnam, with the support of all the leading political parties, the teaching unions and the wider education community, as well as industry and media partners.
Dr Acors’ research at King’s included working with post-doctoral researcher Dr Nathalia Almedia to create populations, or lines, of a special type of human stem cell, which could help uncover why HIV leads to different outcomes in different people.
Announcing this development in February this year, Professor Mike Malim, co-senior author of the paper, said: “This has been a long journey for us, and I am particularly pleased for Nathalia Almeida and Sam Acors whose dedication and attention to detail enabled the creation of this panel of lines. It will be fascinating to see what we and others can discover about HIV biology and pathogenesis in the years to come.”
Ibrohim took the top prize in the -37kg Class A Cadet category in an event which attracted more than 500 athletes.
His previous achievements include winning a silver medal last autumn in the -37kg novice category at the British Taekwondo National Kyorugi Championships in Sheffield and, before that, taking gold in a sparring competition, also at Sophia Gardens.
His SafeEat smartphone scanner for elderly and visually impaired users was one of just seven out of 2,176 entries in the Global Appathon to receive ‘honourable mentions’ alongside the winners.
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The boys and girls from the Institution Saint-Pierre gave free rein to their creative side in activities that included a hip-hop workshop held just for fun, as well as an English literature and poetry class led by Head of English Robert Hyland.
“They stayed with QE families, benefitting from language immersion, and had the chance to participate in classes with their QE correspondents, who are drawn from Years 8 and 12.
“By the time boys become A-level linguists, they are fully conversant, and confident in their speaking, reading and writing skills.”
The competition involves debating complex and thought-provoking motions entirely in French.
Here, although there was no repeat of the triumphs of QE’s last visit, in 2024 – when the U15s recorded the School’s first-ever overall victory in the festival and the U14s won the bowl competition – the Year 9s’ wins did include beating host team Hilversum.
“These activities strengthened team bonding and made for memorable experiences,” said Mr Di-Lieto.