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Building on more than 450 years of academic excellence in Barnet, Queen Elizabeth’s Global Schools is to open a branch campus in India, it was announced today.

The new independent school, which will open in August 2026, will be in Gurugram – a satellite city of Delhi in the northern Indian state of Haryana that is known as a financial and technology hub.

Queen Elizabeth’s School, Gurugram, will deliver a curriculum grounded in academic depth, intellectual discipline and holistic development, designed to prepare students for leadership in an increasingly interconnected world.

It will offer an exceptional, vibrant campus life that is focused on academic excellence and co-curricular activities, providing students with a learning environment that draws inspiration from both QE Barnet and the wider local context in Gurugram. The new school will include world-class sport facilities, a swimming pool and specialist creative and performing arts facilities.

QE Global Schools is a partnership between QE Barnet and GEDU Global Education established to open new overseas schools which reflect the founding School’s ethos, academic rigour and heritage. Queen Elizabeth’s School, Gurugram will launch in the same month as Queen Elizabeth’s School, Dubai Sports City, the opening of which was announced in autumn 2025.

QE Barnet Headmaster Neil Enright said: “We are delighted to have this opportunity to offer a rounded and enriching QE education to children in India, spreading opportunity and supporting students to become the leaders of their generation. Our school in Barnet is built upon the high levels of aspiration, dedication and active engagement of our Elizabethan community, and these are values that we think will resonate strongly in Gurugram.

“We are excited by the potential for international collaboration, which, in time, will build a global network of Elizabethans for the benefit of our new students as well as those within the state sector in Barnet.

“In addition, we intend to use revenue from QE Global Schools to support long-term educational excellence here at Queen’s Road.

“QE Barnet was recently named The Sunday Times State Secondary School of the Year, also winning national recognition as State School of the Year for Academic Excellence and for A-levels. The School ranked first in the sector nationally for GCSE and A-level results.

“The QE experience is so much more than what goes on within the classroom” added Mr Enright. “The breadth and depth of our co-curricular activities (from sport to the arts, debating to robotics), bespoke pastoral care and expert guidance, mean that we succeed in our enduring mission to produce fully rounded young people who are confident, able and responsible.”

Caroline Pendleton-Nash, Chief Executive Officer of Queen Elizabeth’s Global Schools, said, “The opening of Queen Elizabeth’s School in Gurugram is another landmark moment for our organisation.

“Children born in India now will be graduating in 2047, entering the workforce of an economic, political and cultural superpower.

“A world-class K12* education will be critical to ensure these individuals seize the opportunities that are presented to them, and support the aspirations of Viksit Bharat 2047 [Viksit Bharat 2047 is the national vision to transform India into a developed nation through holistic development and empowerment by the 100th anniversary of the country’s independence.].

“We’re honoured to bring the heritage, values and exacting standards of Queen Elizabeth’s School, Barnet, to Indian students and families. With GEDU Global Education’s long-term commitment to India, we are building a school that will nurture confident, capable and principled young people who are prepared to lead with purpose in a rapidly changing and competitive world.”

With a second Queen Elizabeth’s School campus planned for India in 2027–28, GEDU has also committed to investing an additional £150–£200 million over the next three years across India’s K12* and higher education landscape. GEDU’s investments and partnerships in the country reflect its long-term vision of building a network of exceptional K12* and higher education institutions. Through these efforts, GEDU aims to significantly elevate access, quality, and opportunity across India’s education sector.

Alison Barrett MBE, Country Director of the British Council in India, said: “I congratulate Queen Elizabeth’s School on opening its first campus in India, in Gurugram, which will strengthen connections and create greater opportunities for young people in both India and the UK. This initiative complements the UK-India Vision 2035, to internationalise education and help young people gain a deeper understanding of each other’s countries – especially modern UK and India – while building trust and equipping them with the skills to succeed anywhere in the world.”

Alba Smeriglio, British Deputy High Commissioner, British Deputy High Commission Chandigarh, said: “Education is one of the strongest bridges between the UK and India. The opening of Queen Elizabeth’s School in Gurugram is an exciting milestone for UK–India ties and will help nurture skills, promote exchange of best practice, and expand opportunities for young people in Haryana to engage with world-class British education”.

The leadership for the school will be announced in the coming weeks, comprising an expert international team with decades of experience across global education.

For more information visit www.qegurugram.com

*  K12 is short for kindergarten through to 12th grade, reflecting the US school system from the age of around 5 to 17 or 18.  

• Top is an artist’s impression of the new campus in Gurugram. Also pictured above is Mr Enright with GEDU Group CEO Dr Vishwajeet Rana and with Ms Pendleton-Nash.

Three boys achieved perfect scores in a national computing skills competition – while dozens of QE pupils won prizes.

Two hundred and seven pupils entered the UK BEBRAS Challenge at QE – and well over half of them (123) reached the top 10% nationally, earning themselves Gold awards and qualifying  for the next round.

Head of Digital Teaching and Learning Michael Noonan said: “We recognise the importance of digital literacy and critical thinking – and this competition is very effective at developing both.

“My congratulations go to all our many prize-winners on a great performance, and especially to Year 8’s Ehan Islam & Robin Peng and Year 10’s Ryan Uppal: their perfect scores put them in joint-first place nationally, which is a tremendous achievement.

“The outcomes of our students have once again surpassed all national benchmarks and put us in a uniquely strong position; one of the highest achieving schools in the computing-based challenge. I offer my thanks to all staff in STEM subjects, where this type of logic is developed, as well as those who give of their time to run the many coding-based clubs throughout the School.”

Organised by the Raspberry Pi Foundation, the UK BEBRAS Challenge is open to young people aged 6–19. QE pupils entered in three age categories, namely Intermediate (Years 8 & 9); Seniors (Years 10 & 11); and Élites (Years 12 & 13). One hundred and five pupils entered in the Intermediate category, 72 in the Seniors, and 30 in the Élites.

The aim is to introduce computational thinking to young people. Computational thinking is defined as involving the thought processes and problem-solving methods used to develop algorithms; it includes skills such as: decomposition, pattern-recognition, abstraction, evaluation, generalisation, debugging, and logical reasoning.

While the Gold awards are given based on performance against the national results, the competition’s other awards depend on relative performance within a school. These are:

• Best in School prizes – awarded at QE to Ehan and Robin jointly, to Ryan, and to William Joanes, of Year 13
• Distinction prizes: awarded to the top 25% in each year group
• Merit prizes: awarded to the next 25%
• Participation certificates: awarded to the remaining 50%.

The QE cohort’s overall performance was so strong that not only did all the School’s Distinction and Merit prize-winners reach the national top 10% and receive Gold awards, but so also did some of those receiving Participation certificates. These boys have been invited to take part in the next round – the BEBRAS Coding Challenge – a 45-minute competition that will take place in March.

“It was a fun way to engage with computational thinking” said Artharv Sharma, of Year 8.

Queen Elizabeth’s School starts 2026 with a new School Captain, Tunishq Mitra, who took up his post this week, together with a 130-strong prefect team.

Tunishq will be assisted by the two Senior Vice-Captains, Peter Atanasov and Vu-Lam Le-Nguyen (pictured to the left and right of him) and ten Vice-Captains, who will be in post throughout 2026. All in the School Officials (prefects) team are drawn from Year 12.

Headmaster Neil Enright said: “My congratulations go to Tunishq, Peter, Vu-Lam and all the new team. Prefects are very effective role models to younger boys in the School, and these positions are well-deserved, having been earned through service over several years.”

Deputy Head (Pastoral) David Ryan gave this assessment of Tunishq, Peter and Vu-Lam: “All three are committed and loyal to the School.  They have accumulated a significant number of involvements in music, sport and debating, to name just three.

“Their QE journey has been a fantastically successful one; they have been chosen to be form captains, sports captains, junior prefects, and now senior prefects.  Their talents were obvious from their first year with us, and they have picked a number of prizes at our awards ceremonies over the years.”

Tunishq has been involved in drama productions and music ensembles (playing the electric guitar), and been a peer mentor. He is one of the editors of The Econobethan – QE’s pupil-run Economics publication.  He has been involved in VEX robotics, too, including qualifying with his team for the World Championships.

Vu-Lam is known for debating and public-speaking, which has included English-Speaking Union debating events, Model United Nations conferences, and Mock Trial competitions. He is one of the leaders of the Politics Society and an editor of The Arabella – a student-led literary journal at the School. He is also a musician, playing the violin in various ensembles. Like Tunishq, he has been involved in VEX Robotics and is a veteran of the World Championships.

Peter has been involved in representative sport, notably rugby and water polo, as well as acting as a peer mentor. He was in the Combined Cadet Force.

Tunishq, who was formally given the role towards the end of last term by the Headmaster, joins a long line of QE School Captains (head boys) dating back to at least 1876. He takes over from the 2025 School Captain, Simardeep Sahota and his cohort, who, the Headmaster said, enjoyed a successful year.

The 2026 Vice-Captains are: Advay Bhat; Aahan Shah; Ameen Elamin; Faaiz Adil; Ishaan Mishra; Jasmaan Sahota; Keeyan Shah; Rishi Watsalya; Rithwik Gururaj; and Tuhin Mitra.

Other roles include House Captains and Deputy House Captains for each of QE’s six Houses:

• Broughton: Paarth Aggarwal (Captain) and Oscar Kaltenbronn (Deputy)
• Harrisons’: Ahsan Rahman (C) and Noah Morley (D)
• Leicester: Soham Sapra (C) and Victor Varbanov (D)
• Pearce: Vivan Paul (C) and Kavya Amin (D)
• Stapylton: Jaydon Lad (C) and Olic Fan (D)
• Underne: Yash Mehta (C) and Vihaan Salunke (D)

Year 13 students Ishaan Bhandari and Laksh Aggarwal enter their final few months at QE bolstered by a win in a Cambridge competition.

The pair triumphed in the Most impactful category in the Homerton College Design Programme 2025, which challenged entrants to “design a sustainable solution to any environmental or health problem that we are facing”.

Ishaan and Laksh’s entry looked at the provision of water in informal settlements such as Mumbai’s Dharavi, sometimes known as the biggest slum in Asia.

Deputy Head (Academic) Anne Macdonald said both Ishaan and Laksh are “excellent and keen geographers”, adding “Ishaan is an aspiring engineer and Laksh an economist – both brought their expertise from those areas to the design.

“Their design was judged to be ‘most impactful’ because – as excellent geographers and holistic thinkers – they considered carefully the design context.  The water solution needed to work for people living in crowded, informal settlements, where government provision of basic infrastructure including water and electricity is often lacking.

“In designing a low-tech solution that: could be used and maintained by individuals; was distributed by NGOs [non-governmental organisations]; and was low-cost and sustainable in its material and energy use, they successfully (and impressively) hit the ‘impactful’ brief.”

The pair intended their solution to be provided to individuals via NGOs, rather than to governments.

The competition rules stipulated that each entry should:

• Have a hypothetical budget of no more than £20,000
• Take up no more than 10m x 10m of space
• Follow a four-stage structure – identifying the problem; looking at possible solutions; choosing the best solution; and explaining how it could be implemented.

To assist entrants, a series of webinars led by Homerton College staff and fellows was held.

After creating a presentation and video, Ishaan and Laksh were shortlisted and invited to a celebration event along with about 100 other shortlisted entrants.

At the event, students were invited to a panel discussion of experts titled Building a Sustainable World whilst maintaining the Health and Wellbeing of global citizens, chaired by Homerton Principal Lord Simon Woolley (pictured top taking a group selfie at the event), who was the guest speaker at QE’s 2024 Valediction ceremony.

Ishaan and Laksh individually received certificates and, together, a wooden plaque.

An after-school lecture by a national space journalist attracted huge interest from the boys.

Some 200 pupils packed into the Main Hall for the voluntary assembly by Peggy Hollinger, Space Industry Editor for the Financial Times.

She made a powerful case for the benefits of space travel and exploration, answering one boy’s question about what is gained from it with a single word – “Knowledge!” – before adding: “We don’t know what knowledge we will get. We don’t know what benefits we will get. But if we don’t try, we won’t get it.”

Assistant Head (Pupil Involvement) Crispin Bonham-Carter said: “Peggy Hollinger is wonderful, and it was fantastic to see how she captivated the audience.”

In a career at the FT spanning 38 years, she has previously held roles including International Business Editor and Paris Bureau Chief.

Her wide-ranging talk covered topics including journalism and the importance of space, both economically and militarily.

The event was organised by Year 12’s Vu-Lam Le-Nguyen and Keshav Aggarwal.

“She championed the important role played by journalism – and by the Financial Times in particular – stating that the FT’s job was to follow where the money goes and look at those who were moving it,” said Vu-Lam.

Her degree was in Mediaeval History, but that had not hampered her career: it was her drive to follow current affairs that led to her going into journalism.

In answer to one question from the floor about why the media feels more polarised than in the past, she blamed the pressure on organisations to seek audience engagement, before adding this warning: “If you only follow the clicks…and you only listen to people who tell you what you want to hear, then things will never change. You will go further and further into polarisation.”

Space is now a domain for warfare, she said, citing the USA, China and Russia as the main actors, and stated that Europe could be at risk of falling behind if it cannot reconcile continental with individual national goals. European countries should look for areas of expertise, just as Elon Musk’s SpaceX has found its expertise in low-Earth orbits, she suggested.

Asked to enlarge on the military uses of space, she spoke about the war in Ukraine, where space has been used not only for surveillance, but also to carry out cyber-attacks.

Another question asked: “Who gains from going to space?” In reply, she pointed to the huge return on investment available, with an £8 return recorded for every £2–3 invested in the UK space industry.