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The Governors of Queen Elizabeth’s School have appointed Neil Enright, currently Deputy Headmaster at QE, to succeed John Marincowitz on his retirement at the end of this academic year. Mr Enright will therefore become the 40th Headmaster of the School in September 2011.

“When the Chairman announced Mr Enright’s appointment to the staff their spontaneous applause spoke volumes,” says Dr Marincowitz. “I too felt enormously relieved by this welcome news, secure in the knowledge that the School will be in very capable hands. Having overseen key strategic developments here during recent years, Mr Enright is well known and ideally placed to lead the School from strength to strength in the next stage of its development.”

Having grown up locally, Mr Enright attended The John Lyon School in Harrow, where he was Deputy Head Boy. After leaving in 1996, he went on to St John’s College, Oxford, to read Geography and subsequently took his Post Graduate Certificate of Education teaching qualification at the University of London’s Institute of Education.

His first teaching post, in 2000, was at St Gregory’s RC Science College, Kenton, where he not only taught Geography but was also Gifted & Talented Co-ordinator and the college’s Co-ordinator for the Government’s Excellence in Cities programme.

Then, in September 2002, Mr Enright came to QE. Before his most recent position as Deputy Head, he has been Head of Geography, Head of Year and Assistant Head. His roles and duties have included deputising for the Headmaster in his absence and being responsible for teaching & learning, for assessment and for staffing (recruitment, development & retention). In addition, he has overseen the School’s marketing and contributed to the strategic development of IT systems.

Mr Enright was awarded his National Professional Qualification for Headship in 2007 and an MBA, from the Institute of Education, in November last year, with a dissertation on ‘Growing your own’ leadership in a context of change.

He is an interview panel member for undergraduate geography applicants to St Hilda’s College and St Edmund Hall, Oxford, and undertakes various roles for the University of Hertfordshire’s Faculty of Education. His other current voluntary roles include being a local authority-nominated governor at Longfield Junior School, Harrow.

A higher proportion of pupils from QE go to Oxford or Cambridge than from any other state school in the country, a leading education foundation has reported.

The Sutton Trust, in its recent report entitled Degrees of Success, also named QE as the country’s top state school for sending pupils to the UK’s 30 leading universities.

Nearly a quarter (22%) of QE boys who went on to higher education over the three years during which the research was carried out gained places at Oxford or Cambridge – a total of 88 boys. In the list of Top 100 Schools whose pupils progress to a ‘highly selective’ (top 30) university, QE was ranked 13th – the only state school in the top 37.

In terms of total numbers sent to Oxbridge, QE was ranked behind only two state schools, including Hills Road Sixth Form College in Cambridge. However, both have more Sixth-Formers than QE and they performed less strongly in percentage terms, both for pupils progressing to Oxbridge and for those going to the top 30 universities.

“I am delighted that the recent Sutton Trust research into top university placements ranks Queen Elizabeth’s so highly,” said Headmaster John Marincowitz. “The School’s position as top state school and 13th in the country including Independent Schools, is best appreciated in the context of QE’s socio-economic profile. Ofsted ranks Queen Elizabeth’s as average for England in terms of social deprivation, yet the Sutton Trust found that 87% of the School’s boys go on to the most selective universities. This is a truly resounding confirmation of Queen Elizabeth’s contribution to social mobility.”

The Sutton Trust was founded in 1997 by Sir Peter Lampl with the aim of promoting social mobility through education. It has funded a wide range of access projects in early years, school and university settings, with a focus on research, policy and innovative practical projects with a system-wide relevance.

Jay Foreman (1996-2003), a comedian and musician, is now enjoying a busy 2011 after winning Best Newcomer at the Tuborg Musical Comedy Awards 2009, taking third prize at the Musical Comedy Awards 2010 and being named Bedford New Comedian of the Year 2010.

Jay has gained enormous popularity both through his live performances and through the internet. He has his own following at the School: a number of boys recently went to see him perform in Putney. His song, Moon Chavs, has, for example, become a viral hit on youtube, with more than 200 different fan videos uploaded to date. Among his other online hits are his student-orientated Ask a Rabbi videos, in which he dresses as an orthodox rabbi and gives spoof Agony Aunt-style answers to students’ questions.

In a review of his show, Pretend You’re Happy, at the 2010 Edinburgh Festival Fringe, Steve Bennett, of the UK comedy guide, Chortle, wrote: “Generally, the writing is sharp and sophisticated and the musicianship strong, making him a sort of Victoria Wood for the Spotify generation.”

“My show is hard to describe and I’ve got enormous trouble trying to decide whether it is comedy or music,” says Jay. His songs often have provocative titles such as I’m glad John Lennon Died or Stealing Food. “I love to make people laugh at something they shouldn’t find funny, like if they know it’s bad-taste or if it’s quite sad.”

Jay began performing comedy songs on acoustic guitar in 2005 at York University. Many of his live performances there were filmed by York Student Television and made available online.

Jay has made appearances on Nuts TV and Lunch with the Hamiltons. In 2009 he contributed jingles to the weekly comedy podcast, Answer Me This.

Jay is the brother of the award-winning beatboxer, Beardyman (Darren Foreman), also featured in this newsletter. They have collaborated on stage several times.

The School would like to thank the following old boys, who assisted with the recent careers day for Year 9:

• Kane Evans (2003-2010)
• Stuart Hinds (1989-1996)
• Marios Kyprianou (2003-2010)
• Laurent Lemberger (1996-2003)
• Joe Liang (2001-2008)
• Ashu Mahedeshwar (1995-2002)
• Ajay Patel (2001-2008)
• Tony Qin (2001-2008)
• Adam Selwyn (1986-1993)
• Priyan Shah (1991-1998)
• Harry Vekeria (1980-1987)
• Matteo Yoon (2003-2010)

If you would like to get involved in similar events, or if you have news to share about yourself or other former pupils, we would be delighted to hear from you. Please contact alumni@qebarnet.co.uk

Pupils from the School have won two prestigious national business competitions.

For the second consecutive year, a QE team took first prize in the Tune into Business competition run by the The Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales (ICAEW) in partnership with The b-Live Foundation, a careers and community site aimed at pupils at secondary schools.

And Year 12 student Adeel Haque came first in the ifs Young Business Writer of the Year competition, with another QE pupil, Abhijai Shah of Year 13, short-listed to the final five.

Contestants had to write a 1,000-word article derived from the headline Does the UK economy need rebalancing away from financial services?

Competition judge David Budworth, Deputy Financial Editor at The Times, said the standard of all five finalists was extremely high. “One essay stood out. Adeel Haque’s entry was well-written, well-argued and powerful, without resorting to hyperbole or cliché – exactly the approach adopted by The Times’ leader writers,” he said.

“Adeel is to be congratulated, particularly as there were a record number of entries this year,” said QE’s Head of Economics and Business, Liane Ryan. “Adeel was commended for his excellent reporting style and analysis, together with his good research.”

Adeel’s prize was a cheque for £500 which was presented at a lunch at the ifs London office. Adeel has also been offered work experience this summer at The Times.

Tune into Business was won by four Year 11 Economists: Bennie Jaderberg, John Otugade, Marco Saccardi and Nigethan Sathiyalingam. They were required to step into the shoes of a high-powered music executive and decide on the most viable artist to invest in out of a choice of three. They had to justify their decision using market data, financial information and other social variables.

“We are very proud of the boys’ achievement,” said Headmaster John Marincowitz. “To win such a prestigious competition in two consecutive years speaks of a consistently high level of performance.”

Alumnus and former QE teacher Tim Adnitt (OE 1988-1995) is creating new standards in Music Technology.

Tim is a Senior Product Designer/Product Owner at Native Instruments, a leading manufacturer of software and hardware for computer-based audio production.

Working in both London and Berlin, he leads the design of the Komplete Kontrol keyboard software, as well as contributing to the Maschine groove production system. Throughout 2015 he drove the design and development of Native Kontrol Standard. This extended plug-in format represents a new standard for integrating music software with hardware, enabling software instrument manufacturers to take advantage of the features of Komplete Kontrol and Maschine hardware. Native Instruments’ latest accolades include an Editor’s Choice award from Electronic Musician magazine for the Komplete Kontrol S Series keyboards.

Tim is supported at Native Instruments by one of his former Music Technology students at QE, Adil Ghanty (OE 2003-2010) who joined the company as a Product Designer in summer 2015. Adil’s appointment is testament, says Tim, to the strong tradition of Music and Music Technology at the School.

Alongside his work at Native instruments, Tim continues to work internationally as a sound designer and audio engineer.

He co-produced and mixed Dancing on Frith Street, an album by the critically acclaimed and popular British jazz big band Loose Tubes, which won Jazzwise magazine’s Archive Album of the Year 2010 (Critics’ Choice).

More recent credits include co-production and mixing of Loose Tubes' new album, Arriving, voted number-three Jazz Album of 2015 by both Jazzwise and The Guardian.

The traditional Founder’s day celebrations take place at the School on the third Saturday of June.

Queen Elizabeth’s School has received another national accolade, with the Sunday Times’ 21st annual Parent Power guide naming it as the country’s top boys’ state school.

QE this year maintained its position in the maintained schools league table, again taking second place overall behind The Henrietta Barnett School, a girls’ school in Hampstead.

The primary measure used in compiling the tables was the proportion of A-level grades at A*-B. HBS, on 98.4%, was closely followed by QE on 97.7%, with third-placed Wilson’s School in Wallington further behind on 93.0%. The table also recorded the percentage of A* and A grades at GCSE. Here, QE’s 90.1% was marginally ahead of HBS (90.0%).

Headmaster Neil Enright said: “This summer’s examination results at both A-level and GCSE were very strong indeed and represent a tribute to the sustained hard work of our students and also to the dedication and expertise of our staff. It is gratifying to see those efforts recognised nationally.”

QE’s success in the Parent Power table is the latest in a number of recent national endorsements. In March this year, it was ranked as the top state school in the Financial Times‘ top 1,000 schools table. The FT’s is the most demanding of all league tables as it measures the schools’ performance in difficult “core” academic subjects.

During the summer, research published by the Sutton Trust revealed that Queen Elizabeth’s sends a greater proportion of its students to Oxford or Cambridge than any other state school in England. The research also found that, in terms of placing students at the country’s leading 30 universities, QE is the top state school. In fact, it is the only state school among the top 37 schools nationwide, sending 87% of its pupils to the most selective universities.

As I approach the end of my first term as Headmaster of Queen Elizabeth’s School, I am acutely aware that I have inherited the mantle of an outstanding predecessor whose great leadership and energy have hugely enhanced and enriched the School, and who has thereby ensured that our mission to produce young men who are “confident, able and responsible” continues to be fulfilled.

This summer’s exceptional public examination results marked a fitting postscript to Dr Marincowitz’s headmastership. For any school to attain its best-ever results at both GCSE and A-level in the same summer is an achievement; for a school such as QE to do so, when it already has a record of several years of consistent high academic success, is remarkable indeed. At GCSE, 90% of examinations taken this year were awarded A* or A grades, with almost all the others (8.9%) at B. The proportion of boys achieving five or more A* or A grades continues to rise: 97.8% of the 179-strong Year 11 achieved this benchmark, compared with 96% last year and 92.1% in 2009. Our A-level results were equally impressive, with 98% of grades at A*-B and an average points score per pupil of 504. Encouragingly, close scrutiny of the A-level results reveals strong performance across the curriculum: for example, more than three-quarters of our English candidates gained A*, as did seven of our 11 Art students. Economics and Mathematics were among other departments for which very good results were reported.

QE pupils – including Sam Sherman, profiled elsewhere in this e-newsletter – took the Extended Project Qualification (EPQ) for the first time this year and here, too, there was success, with 26 of the 27 candidates (96%) gaining A* or A grades. I am keen to foster academic enrichment beyond the sometimes narrow confines of the National Curriculum and of examination board syllabuses; the EPQ is thus a welcome addition to our Sixth Form programme, alongside other enriching activities such as our academic symposium with students from North London Collegiate School.

Just a few weeks after receiving news of our summer examination successes, the School was able to announce that we had been awarded the prestigious Prince’s Teaching Institute Mark in four subjects. The PTI Mark, which is awarded retrospectively for 2010/11, was awarded for the first time to the English, Geography and History departments. The Science department gained it in the previous year and had it renewed, while the School’s Modern Foreign Languages department is now working towards gaining the mark. To gain the mark requires considerable commitment from the departments concerned: they have to demonstrate how they have fostered their students’ enthusiasm and understanding, while also showing commitment to increasing teachers’ subject knowledge. Furthermore, senior QE teachers have begun to play a significant part in the PTI’s work. Assistant Head, Anne MacDonald, and Head of History, Tahmer Mahmoud, have been appointed as mentors for the institute’s Schools Programme and have helped other schools agree their targets.

Our wide variety of extra-curricular provision intentionally encompasses both academic endeavour and worthwhile activities beyond the classroom. Debating is of course a proven way of putting boys on their mettle academically. Under the leadership of our Head of Debating, Nisha Mayer, it is now taking place throughout the School from Year 7 upwards and I am particularly heartened by the re-establishment of the Elizabethan Union, the School’s formal debating society. Exchanges and overseas visits constitute another important facet of our life as a School. This term for the first time we hosted French and German schools in the same week. The end-of-term Carol Service in the Parish Church and the Rotary Christmas Concert are important both for the opportunities to perform that they afford our musicians and for the role they play in upholding the traditions of the School.

Another key event has been the successful biennial inspection of our Combined Cadet Force. The Reviewing Officer, Lieutenant Colonel Alan Cliffe, of the Royal Engineers, commended the cadets’ “exceptional personal standards” and the unit’s “cohesion and enthusiasm”. The unit’s Captain, Mev Armon, who also teaches Biology at QE, was singled out for praise for “his inspiring personal leadership style and sacrifice, which, together with the School ethos, sees the cadets being given responsibility and developing very good leadership and military skills”. Lt Col Cliffe concluded his report: “Queen Elizabeth’s School is a first-class example of how cadet units can produce first-class young men. With co-ordinated support, I am certain that the unit will continue to flourish.”

During a busy term, Professor A C Grayling’s impassioned address to our Sixth-Formers on the importance of studying the humanities stands out as both timely and significant; it is a necessary corrective to the excessively utilitarian approach to education that has grown around the world in recent years. I consider that it is entirely legitimate to pursue learning for learning’s sake; to develop oneself before developing one’s career. Practical applications can come later: we strongly encourage QE pupils to seek fulfilment by following their genuine academic interests both here and at university, whether those interests lie in science or the arts. The School is in rude health at a time when many great challenges loom: cuts in public spending; economic hardships and uncertainty facing many of our families, and unprecedented competition for university places. What is important at such a juncture is that we remain true to our mission and resist any calls – from whatever quarter – to sacrifice the arts and other non-vocational areas of study in the misguided belief that these are useless fripperies which must be cut away in order to stay competitive in the market.

I am also determined to continue QE’s notable success in contributing to social mobility. This School is a needs-blind meritocracy, where all boys of ability can and do succeed, regardless of their background. In a recent essay, Paul Johnson, Director of the Institute of Fiscal Studies, stated that while many more children from poorer backgrounds now reach nationally expected levels at age 11 and stay on at school after 16, when it comes to university entry there remain big gaps between the destinations of children from poor families and those from affluent homes. This discrepancy is due not to discrimination from universities, but to the under-achievement nationally of poorer children at A-level. Queen Elizabeth’s School continues to buck this trend, with a large majority of our leavers going on to Russell Group universities, even though our pupils are described by Ofsted as of “average deprivation”. I am pleased to report that the construction of the first phase of the building which will house our new Library and dining hall is progressing well. It is also good to be able to report that our School Shop enjoyed a successful first season, not only in terms of commercial performance but also in the way that it enabled us as a School community to meet our new intake of Year 7 parents early on.

Similarly, I valued the opportunity which the 116th Old Elizabethans Annual Dinner gave me to meet some of our old boys in my first term as Headmaster. It was interesting to hear the thoughts of our guest speaker, Zaid Belbagi (2000-2007). As many of you will know, the cohort who will be marking the tenth anniversary of their leaving the School at the end of the current academic year are among those who are especially invited to the Annual Dinner. This year, they included Paralympian rower Tom Aggar (1995-2002): I am sure that his fellow old boys will join me in wishing him every success as he seeks to repeat his Beijing successes by winning gold at London 2012.

I would like to conclude by giving all our alumni my best wishes for a happy festive season and a peaceful and prosperous New Year.

Neil Enright

The School is always delighted to hear from our former pupils, whether they would like to get involved in QE events or simply have news to share about themselves or former classmates. To get in touch with our Alumni Office, please contact alumni@qebarnet.co.uk

As reported in the first issue of the Alumni News newsletter, 12 alumni turned out for the Tune into Business enterprise event for Year 9 boys. They included Marios Kyprianou (2003-2010), pictured here.

For Tune into Business, the Year 9 students were released from their usual timetable to allow them to participate. This event involved groups of students working with a volunteer from the world of business to plan and promote a tour for a chosen musical act. The aim of the day was to encourage and develop teamwork between students who were out of their usual peer groups and in larger groups than is possible in the usual School day.

Using supplied information on the costs and logistics of planning a tour, and advice from their business facilitator, students used a variety of techniques, such as SWOT analysis, to identify the artiste they predicted could make them the most profit. Students had to organise their time effectively and distribute tasks among themselves, having first evaluated their own aptitudes and talents.

The day culminated in their presenting their ideas and profit forecast for their chosen act and the rationale for these ideas, along with examples of merchandising and promotion materials. Input from the business volunteers was essential in giving the students an insight into the world of work and a fresh perspective on the decision-making process.