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The cast of Richard III enjoyed the honour of being the first to put on a drama production in QE’s new Robert Dudley Studio – before attracting a rave review when they repeated their performance at North Finchley’s Artsdepot.

Although the play is one of Shakespeare’s longest, depicting the Machiavellian rise to power and subsequent short reign of the eponymous king, it was performed as an abridged version for the Shakespeare Schools Festival.

And in line with one of its most famous quotations – “’Tis better, sir, to be brief than tedious” – in its 30-minute form it lost none of its impact. According to theatre and opera director Callie Nestleroth, all the actors, including Year 13’s Robin Bickers in the title role, impressed with the “depth and emotional complexity” they brought to the production.

Callie, who wrote following the ensemble’s Artsdepot appearance, described the performance as “brilliant” and “a joy to watch”. Originally from the USA, she is currently working as a director with numerous organisations, including Opera Holland Park, Streetwise Opera and Royal Academy Opera.

Her 350-word appraisal addressed to the School picked out a number of aspects of the production:

• “Your fresh and inventive take on Richard III. The way you streamlined and modernised the play felt both bold and inspired, breathing new life into a classic text.”
• “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”
• “The truly collaborative atmosphere. It was evident that you all worked together to bring your vision of the play to life.”
• “The layers within your performances were numerous and intricate. Despite the underlying tension, you managed to bring humour and wit to many moments, making it both gripping and surprising at every turn.”

Stating that she was already looking forward to seeing next year’s QE Shakespeare Schools Festival production, she said: “This was an edgy, nuanced, and poignant Richard III from a professional and creative cast.”

Headmaster Neil Enright said: “The Robert Dudley Studio is a great addition to our facilities here, and it is great to have been able to inaugurate our own drama productions there with such an impressive performance. My congratulations go to all the cast and to colleagues involved in staging this memorable production.”

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Venture capital investor Jonathan Kruger has led a Series B* funding round that raised around £12m for pet insurance firm Napo.

Jonathan (OE 2000–2007) is an Investment Associate with Mercia Ventures, a £2bn fund that is one of the one of the UK’s most active VC capital investors.

Before joining Mercia two years ago, he spent three years at Google, supporting high-growth seed-stage businesses with go-to-market strategy and execution. And before that, he co-founded and scaled his own VC-backed direct-to-consumer business, The Drop, which uses machine-learning to produce on-demand made-to-measure men’s fashion.

Napo was founded in 2021 by Ludovic Lacay, a Product Lead at global internet giant Meta, and Jean-Philippe Doumeng, an executive at former health service provider Babylon Health.

The funding will enable it to scale further, including making further investment in its AI-driven claims process and other technology.

Jonathan said he was very excited to have led the funding round and was “looking forward to working with Jean-Philippe Doumeng, Ludovic Lacay and their incredible team for the next stage of the journey”.

*Series B funding is the third round of equity financing for start-ups. At this stage, the company has found product-market fit and needs capital to scale. The goal is to expand into new markets, develop new product lines, and prepare for potential exits. Investors provide capital in exchange for preferred shares.
Investopedia.com

Having already blasted through the regional round, a dozen QE scientists and engineers have lit up the national finals of a design competition that challenges competitors to plan for a future in outer space.

The boys were part of the winning inter-school ‘company’ at the weekend-long finals held at Imperial College London.

Competitors now wait to hear whether they will be among the dozen individuals selected for sponsored places representing the UK in the International Space Settlement Design Competition (ISSDC) in July, which is held at the Kennedy Space Center at Cape Canaveral, Florida.

Headmaster Neil Enright said:  “This is an exciting competition which looks forward to a future in which living in space is common and which tests entrants’ skills in science, engineering and business. Many congratulations to our students. Having won their regional finals, they rose to the occasion magnificently again at Imperial, working together well with boys and girls from other schools to produce some great designs for a future asteroid settlement.”

The UKSDC is part of a global family of Space Design Competitions running events across Africa, America (North and South), Asia, Australia, Canada, and Europe. These competitions culminate in the International Space Settlement Design Competition (ISSDC).

As in previous years, the UKSDC set its challenges for the national competition in a fictional version of the solar system where significant infrastructure has been built.

This year, competitors were assigned into ‘companies’ and tasked with designing a theoretical asteroid belt settlement called ‘Astoria’. The other schools working alongside QE were: Sevenoaks School, Kent; North Liverpool Academy; South Hunsley School, Yorkshire; Westminster School, London; and Wycombe Abbey School, Buckinghamshire.

Members of each company needed to work collaboratively to create a proposal in 22 hours, summarising all aspects of the settlement: operations, mission systems, structural, business, and human.

The challenges included creating a Human Factors Department, to look after residents’ mental and physical wellbeing – an aspect designed to appeal especially to Biology students. Chemists and physicists were able to thrive with the Operations Department, which took a deep dive into the essential processes required to keep the settlement operational. Jasmaan Sahota praised the CAD (Computer-Aided Design) skills of fellow QE competitor, Snehal Das, who had impressed the judges in the regional finals.

After the teams presented their proposals to a panel of judges from industry, academia and business, the Olympus Mons Trading Company was proclaimed the winner.

Vinujan Sivakumar (Year 12) said: “We came up against some very tough competition and gruelling questions, but after a nail-biting period of deliberation, we won! Most of us barely had any sleep, but the effort definitely paid off!”

Keshav Aggarwal (Year 11) added: “It was truly a great experience to not only attend the UK Space Design Competition’s National Finals at Imperial College but take on a leadership role (VP of Business) and win! Many thanks to the entire UKSDC organisers for their support, my teachers, Mr. Xu and Mr. Brooke, who made this possible, and my fellow teammates. It was great to collaborate with so many new people as part of the extended team. I’m looking forward to attending again next year!”

The QE competitors were:

Year 11
Keshav Aggarwal
Snehal Das
Rithwik Gururaj
Vu-Lam Le-Nguyen
Ishaan Mishra
Jasmaan Sahota

Year 12
Timi Banjo
Karthik Kalaiarasan
Giuseppe Mangiavacchi
Sai Murarishetty
Rayan Pesnani
Vinujan Sivakumar

One of the great highlights of QE’s sporting calendar – the Rugby Sevens tournament – brought a day of spirited, exciting play.

With the weather good, the 49th Annual QE Barnet Rugby Sevens Tournament drew some 56 teams to battle it out for the cup and plate trophies, including many from the country’s leading rugby schools.

The U14 event was held, as usual, on the School’s four pitches at Queen’s Road. However, with Barnet Elizabethans RFC’s pitches unavailable this year, Haberdashers’ Boys’ stepped in to host the U16s.

Ipswich School won the cup and Tonbridge School took the plate at U14 level, while for the older boys, Berkhamsted School secured the cup and Merchant Taylors’ the plate.

Headmaster Neil Enright said: “Our Sevens tournament is always a happy occasion at which visitors, alumni, staff and our own parents come together with the boys to enjoy the games and meet up with friends. With the sun shining brightly, there was a real air of celebration this year, while the players delivered some truly thrilling play.”

“My congratulations go to our winners, and I am, of course, grateful to Habs for hosting the U16 event.”

Staging the tournament at QE was a huge logistical effort involving the hard work and co-operation of the entire PE & Games department, the London Society of Referees, many pupil helpers and volunteers from The Friends of Queen Elizabeth’s. The event was sponsored once again by school and club sports tour specialists, inspiresport.

QE’s own teams faced tough opponents in their group stages.

Head of Rugby Ollie Di-Lieto said: “Although, sadly, both the U14s and U16s lost their matches in the group stage, they gave us some exciting attacking rugby and provided plenty of highlights to remember the day by.”

Although Junu Park, of Year 9, gained much ground with some outstanding running and his teammates at times moved the ball into space well, the squad found it harder to maintain constant pressure, with the breakdown fiercely contested even with the reduced numbers on the field, Mr Di-Lieto said.

The final U14 game against Robert Clack School, from Dagenham, saw QE come agonisingly close, losing in the end 24–26.

“All our games were played in a good spirit and with great commitment against some of the best rugby schools around,” said Mr Di-Lieto, who thanked all involved.

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Queen Elizabeth’s School welcomed Professor Irene Tracey, Vice-Chancellor of the University of Oxford, as Guest of Honour at this year’s Senior Awards Ceremony.

Professor Tracey handed out prizes in the School Hall to around 80 award-winners drawn from Years 10, 11 & 12. The prizes covered not only the full gamut of academic subjects, but also extra-curricular activities that ranged from music to debating & public speaking, and from drama to involvement in the Combined Cadet Force.

Later, Professor Tracey delivered an address in which she urged the boys: “Put more into the world than you take out,” adding: “That is the path to happiness in its truest sense.”

Many staff and guests later commented on how engaging her speech was, highlighting especially the importance she had placed on kindness and the strength that true kindness can require.

Senior Awards 2025 began with an introduction from Headmaster Neil Enright, who, in welcoming Professor Tracey, pointed out that this year, a record number of QE pupils applied to Oxford, with 15 receiving offers – just one below last year’s all-time record high figure.

In his address, he commended the example of Sir Magdi Yacoub, a retired professor of cardiothoracic surgery at Imperial College London and pioneer of surgery to repair heart valves. “Sir Magdi successfully operated on my grandfather in the 1970s, when coronary bypass surgery was in its relative infancy and when many procedures were at an experimental phase.

“He took academic and professional risks, working at the frontier of science. When asked for his advice to young and aspiring cardiothoracic surgeons, he simply replied: ‘PPH. Passion, persistence and humility.’

“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,” Mr Enright said, also thanking The Friends of Queen Elizabeth’s for providing hospitality at the event and to the Foundation Trustees for their sponsorship of the awards.

For her part, Professor Tracey encouraged the boys to use their gifts and educational privileges responsibly, and to be confident without being arrogant.

Reflecting on the wide range of activities beyond the classroom being celebrated through the awards, alongside the academic subjects, she noted the importance of keeping hold of the human in an increasingly technological and artificial world. The world had changed greatly over the past 40 years from her own school days, when there were no mobile phones, and no World Wide Web. Like Mr Enright, she mentioned AI, recognising that although it is another technological tool, it is also qualitatively different from much of what has been seen before.

Just as it had not been possible for her to predict what would happen either in the world at large or in her own career, today’s students would not be able to either. But that is exciting, she said. “After you leave school, life becomes less linear, more complex and nuanced.” The boys might have two or three quite distinct different careers.

She would return to Oxford with hope, she said, having seen the evidence of the ability of the next generation at QE. In an uncertain world, she argued that pupils could take confidence from their place in the School’s long history, urging them to be proud of it, as she, the 273rd Vice-Chancellor, was proud of her university, with its near-1,000-year history.

The evening was punctuated by musical interludes delivered by violinist Parth Jain, vocalist Rishi Watsalya and saxophonist Leo Sellis, Music award-winners in Years 10, 11 & 12 respectively.

The VIP party included the Mayor of the Borough of Barnet, Councillor Tony Vourou and the Mayoress, Mrs Caroline Vourou.

The 2025 School Captain, Simardeep Sahota, concluded the proceedings with a vote of thanks in which he not only lauded Professor Tracey’s work as a neuroscientist, but also her passion for education, and commitment to making knowledge accessible to all.

Simardeep, of Year 12, expressed gratitude to all the parents present for their support. “Thanks are also due to all the School staff for setting us so firmly on the path to success,” he added.

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