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Queen Elizabeth’s School tops a new national league table from The Telegraph based on a range of performance data.

In its coverage comparing the country’s 163 grammar schools, the newspaper places QE firmly at the head of its rankings: “Queen Elizabeth’s School, Barnet is the best grammar school in England based on key academic data for both GCSE and A-level students,” writes Data Editor Ben Butcher.

The Telegraph assessed the selective schools according to eight separate criteria. While exam performance was the most heavily weighted factor, the league table awarded points in areas including Progress 8 (a Government measure that looks at pupils’ academic progress from primary school to GCSE), attendance, the proportion of pupils going on to university, and breadth of curriculum.

Publication of the league table comes less than a month after the latest Ofsted report on the School. This gave QE the highest ‘exceptional’ rating across all of the seven areas that the inspectors looked at when they visited last term – a rare accolade given to only a handful of schools nationwide.

Headmaster Neil Enright said: “It is very gratifying to read this data-driven recognition of the excellence of a QE education. This success is, of course, the fruit of a host of factors identified by the Ofsted team, such as my colleagues’ ‘extremely high expectations for behaviour, conduct and attitudes to learning’, our ‘remarkably ambitious’ curriculum, and our focus on equipping pupils with ‘knowledge, resilience and flexibility of thought’.”

While The Telegraph’s league table looked at QE’s very strong 2024–2025 A-level and GCSE results, this summer’s outcomes were even better. The top A* grade went to 63% of all A-levels taken at QE, with the proportion at A*–B reaching 98%. At GCSE, the results were the School’s best-ever, with more than two-thirds of exams awarded a level 9.

Thirty-four GCSE and A-level musicians enjoyed a memorable evening in the Victorian splendour of the Royal Albert Hall at the 80th Anniversary Celebration Concert of the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra.

For many, it was their first experience of hearing a professional orchestra play live.

The RPO served up an 80th birthday treat for their ears, opening the concert with the world premiere of a piece by Errollyn Wallen, Master of the King’s Music, before delivering consummate performances of works by Beethoven and Richard Strauss.

Assistant Director of Music Caroline Grint, who led the trip, said: “Such first-hand experiences are deeply enriching for those studying at GCSE and A-level, helping to deepen their understanding of the context of the music they study, while also providing a valuable cultural experience.

“We’re very fortunate that QE is within easy reach of world-famous venues like the Royal Albert Hall – and, as our Boundless School Plan sets out, we seek to take full advantage of that proximity.”

The performance of Beethoven’s Triple Concerto was “technically dazzling”, Miss Grint said, while the concert’s concluding piece, Richard Strauss’s epic tone poem Ein Heldenleben, featured “an impressive nine French horns”.

Errollyn Wallen’s piece, entitled FLARE, had been specially commissioned by the RPO for the concert. The Belize-born British composer was appointed by King Charles in 2024.  She was awarded an MBE in 2007 and CBE in 2020, both for services to music.

Founded in 1946 by conductor and impresario Sir Thomas Beecham, the RPO has grown from its first concert in Croydon to become an internationally acclaimed orchestra, performing across London, the UK and around the world, as well as reaching audiences through digital and media platforms.

“Our students were particularly struck by the extraordinary technical skill of the internationally acclaimed soloists, pianist Julia Fischer, cellist Pablo Ferrández, and pianist Jan Lisiecki in the Beethoven concerto,” Miss Grint added.

After securing $8 million in the summer to expand their education platform, Medly AI, OEs Paul Jung and Kavi Samra have now tested its value by commissioning an independent trial.

The randomised controlled trial run by research organisation WhatWorked Education looked at 644 GCSE Science candidates.

In their blog, the Medly AI team wrote: “Every revision app says it works. Very few let someone else check.”

The results provided evidence of the positive effects of using Medly AI. “Attainment rose consistently with use. The more students engaged with Medly, the greater the effect… The effect size did not differ by disadvantage status. Pupil Premium students gained in line with their peers, which is encouraging on equity, and the part of the result we’ll be watching most closely as the work continues.”

Kavi and Paul, who both attended QE from 2008 to 2015, secured the seed investment in a round led by Felix Capital, supported by existing investors Eka Ventures and Ada Ventures.

The pair, who have been friends since Year 7, grew up in low-income households where private tutoring was unaffordable. Paul and Kavi went on to study Medicine at UCL, from which Paul holds a PhD in Psychiatric Neuroscience, while Kavi has worked as a doctor in anaesthetics.

Their childhood experience, combined with their professional expertise acquired at UCL, inspired them to develop an alternative – an affordable, subscription-based AI-native platform offering exam-focused, personalised tutoring. Both left their careers in the NHS to build Medly.

Announcing the successful fundraising in August, Paul said: “Millions of students are using AI to skip thinking. We’re two doctors who left medicine to solve that. AI will reshape what it means to learn, to work, to matter. We’re here to make sure people come out of education stronger.

“With this round, we’ll be building our own education-specific models and scaling globally over the next year.”

In nine months through to this summer, more than 400,000 UK students signed up to Medly AI, with three-quarters of them still using the app three months after they started.

The pair have also been awarded a Department for Education grant for working on the AI Pioneer Programme, which aims to raise the attainment of disadvantaged pupils across England.

Boys took advantage of extremely windy weather on their adventure in Aberdovey to try sailing their canoes, instead of paddling them.

Rigging up an emergency shelter as a makeshift sail, the Year 9 and 10 pupils took to the sea for a little wind-powered boating.

It wasn’t all plain-sailing, however – the winds were so strong that the canoes had to be lashed together for safety, while the boys were met with torrential rain on their arrival at the west Wales coast.

Assistant Head (Co-curricular & Partnerships) Crispin Bonham-Carter, who leads the QE Flourish co-curricular programme, said: “This trip is designed to take pupils beyond their comfort zones – and the pouring rain when we arrived certainly did that, but happily it then got sunnier and sunnier.

“Over the course of three action-packed days, the boys’ determination was tested and they developed resilience, independence and teamwork – qualities that will stand them in good stead for their GCSE years ahead. There were some difficult challenges, but the trip was leavened with lots of fun…and some very high-quality ice-creams!

“It was a successful trip, with the boys discovering new strengths and gaining lasting memories along the way. This year’s participants even set a record, with more than ever before – ten boys – completing the commando rope challenge, where they have to cross a stretch of water on a rope.”

Sixty Year 10 pupils and 36 Year 9s, accompanied by eight members of staff, headed off to Outward Bound’s Aberdyfi (Aberdovey) Outdoor Education Centre on the edge of the Snowdonia (Eryri) National Park.

They tackled outdoor challenges including canoeing, kayaking, rock climbing, abseiling and hiking.

For Year 9 pupil Evan Joseph, one of the highlights was the jetty jump – pupils wearing wetsuits leap from the jetty into the sea in what has become an Aberdovey rite of passage. “I usually stick to doing things that I know. But on this trip, I got to try different things, and I will never forget this great experience.”

Yaw Hayfron, of Year 10, relished the camaraderie. “The activities were fun, and I really enjoyed the jetty jump and the gorge scramble – where you have to navigate the natural obstacles through a gorge. It was great that I got to be with my friends so we could do this together. I couldn’t imagine doing it on my own.”

Giving up their weekend along with Mr Bonham-Carter were: QE Flourish co-ordinator Brooke Farron; Geography teacher Thomas Bartlett; Maths teacher Phillip Brady; Physics teacher Phillip Collington; Economics teacher Abdoulaye Diallo; Biology teacher Darren Goffin; and French & German teacher Elisa Perra.

“Opportunities such as this are a cornerstone of QE Flourish, helping our pupils become, in the words of our Boundless School Plan, leaders of influence and valued collaborators,” Mr Bonham-Carter added.

As the Government prepares to implement its ban on social media for under-16s in the spring, the winning team in a QE Futures careers challenge that focused on WhatsApp made online safety their top priority.

The workshop in the Shearly Hall, which was run by WhatsApp owner, Meta, challenged teams to analyse user survey data and then set out their priorities and their recommendations for improving the app.

Team Fantastic Four identified safety as a key priority, particularly for younger users, proposing that Meta should prioritise this, with clearer and more accessible safety controls for users.

Assistant Head Robert Hyland (Destinations and Progress), who heads the QE Futures programme, said: “This workshop was a great example of how careers education can inspire pupils by getting them to apply their skills to highly topical real-world challenges, while at the same time giving them valuable insight into their possible future careers.

“I thank Harry Davison [Head of Marketing Science UK, Benelux, Nordics and Turkey] at Meta, for facilitating this activity, and my congratulations go to the Fantastic Four.”

The four – Sadat Shak, Thanish Thatapa Reddy, Yingjun Ouyang, and Vivaan Pasula – brought complementary skills to the task. Yingjun and Sadat took on the roles of data analysts and presenters, while Vivaan and Thanish focused on the creative design of their PowerPoint presentation.

In their conclusions, they placed safety first, ahead of ‘fun’ as the second priority and AI as the third. One of their key conclusions was: “WhatsApp should not measure improvement only by the number of features it launches. It should measure whether people feel more in control.”

Their presentation combined clear graphs and tables with engaging visuals, demonstrating impressive analytical, creative and teamwork skills. Their systematic and creative approach impressed the judges. It also earned the team the opportunity to present their findings online later to a panel of Meta staff.

Thanish said the project helped him understand “what it feels like to be a data analyst and what I can do in the future”, while Sadat said he could include the achievement on his university application when the time comes.

QE Futures seeks to build core employability skills over pupils’ seven-year journey at the School. Partnering with industry, higher education institutions, and entrepreneurs allows for boys to develop and apply these skills in a real-world context, providing inspiring shared experiences.