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American libertarian academic Dr Tom Palmer took time out from a mini lecture tour to Kings College London and the LSE and gave a popular lunchtime talk at QE.

Active since the 1970s in promoting classical liberal ideas, he decried what he saw as the recent decline in American democracy, but expressed his beliefs that, with the application of optimism it can be successfully renewed, and that all democracies must constantly look to renewal to avoid decline and collapse.

In answer to questions from the boys, he also spoke of the importance of trying to undo damage done by Brexit and of cutting UK Government expenditure.

Politics teacher John Haswell said: “Dr Palmer delivered a compelling talk about the meaning of freedom and democracy, and the rise of authoritarianism. At the heart of his talk was the centrality of open discussion, the exchange of ideas and the importance of persuasion.”

The invitation to QE came about after Senior Vice-Captain Vu-Lam Le-Nguyen met Dr Palmer at an event organised by the John Locke Institute. QE’s well-attended talk in The Robert Dudley Studio was organised by Vu-Lam and his fellow Year 12 student, Keshav Aggarwal.

Dr Palmer travelled across Eastern Europe during the collapse of the USSR, facilitating seminars and distributing writings and resources. A Senior Fellow at the Cato Institute and Executive Vice President for International Programs at the Atlas Network, where he holds the George M Yeager Chair for Advancing Liberty, he has collaborated with NGOs and thinktanks worldwide on topics such as free trade, civil society, and individual rights. He drew upon these experiences in a talk which, with explanations and arguments grounded in academic theory, had the feel of a university lecture.

He spoke about the nature of democracy and its importance. The majority of the world’s population do not live in democracies, he pointed out. It is not enough to call yourself a democracy, or even to hold elections if the outcome is essentially already known.

Democracies are not the natural state of mankind, he added, highlighting the “error” made by George Bush and Tony Blair when they supposed in 2003 that simply deposing Saddam Hussein would see Iraq “transform itself into Oregon or Belgium or Britain or Japan. That did not happen.”

He outlined some of the characteristics of democracy, including: a loyal opposition; no fear that if you lose an election you will be arrested or killed; limited power; freedom of speech, or equal speech. He stressed that democracy is ‘government by discussion’.

As an individual, you have to listen to the other side and understand their arguments in order to truly know an issue. He also explored the nature of the law, drawing a distinction between ‘rule by law’ and the ‘rule of law’.

A development economist by training, he explained how important it is to understand local culture and context to create appropriate policies. Local knowledge and processes might not make immediate sense to an outsider, but there are often good reasons for those processes, perhaps based on local geography. You cannot just impose western methods and expect them to work, he said.

He has a PhD in politics from Oxford University, where he was an H B Earhart Fellow and President of the Oxford Hayek Society.

Dr Palmer is the author of books including Realizing Freedom: Libertarian Theory, History, and Practice and the editor of volumes such as The Morality of Capitalism, Why Liberty, and Peace, Love & Liberty. His writing spans major newspapers and academic journals, including The New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, Foreign Policy, Ethics, and the Harvard Journal of Law & Public Policy.

In the short Q&A at the end, he was asked what advice he would give the UK Government regarding the economy. He suggested:

• Trying to undo some of the damage caused by Brexit by reducing trade friction with the European continent. He noted that there were reasonable people and arguments on both sides of the Brexit debate, but that things had not worked out as some of the more optimistic Brexiteers had imagined.
• Cutting government expenditure. The UK government is spending too much, leading to higher taxes, which then impact growth, he said. He acknowledged it is difficult and that tough choices are needed, but it is necessary and the job of government to build the narrative.

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.

A senior teacher, a sixth-former, and QE as a whole all won awards in the International Computer Science Competition (ICSC).

Queen Elizabeth’s is one of only three schools worldwide to receive an Award for Excellence in the global competition, which this year drew more than 3,800 entrants from middle schools, high schools and universities.

The award is given to schools which had many outstanding pupils achieving high results, or which showed particular support for their pupils.

The School’s individual winners were Head of Digital Teaching & Learning Michael Noonan and Year 12’s Snehal Das.

Headmaster Neil Enright said: “My congratulations go to both the winners of personal prizes and, of course, to all the boys who participated and put in such a superb collective effort. Such co-curricular events are a tremendous way for our boys to hone their computing skills and become future-ready Elizabethans, confident of their place in our fast-changing digital world.”

Mr Noonan was one of just eight educators worldwide, and the only one in Europe, to win a Teacher Impact Award.

Snehal, an avowed computer science enthusiast, won an Ambassador Award – the UK’s only such award – for the “excellent encouragement” he provided as an ambassador helping to organise the competition rounds.

“The ICSC competition was an exciting way to explore…computer science,” said Snehal. “It allowed me to put my computational thinking skills to the test, whilst also allowing me to broaden my knowledge by exploring various research articles.

“As an ambassador of the competition, I also had the pleasure of spreading awareness about the field of computer science to younger years.”

ICSC aims to stimulate logical thinking and deepen computer science knowledge. There are three age categories: junior, which is up to 16; youth, up to 19; and senior, which is for first-year university students and above.

All participants receive the same set of problems, but the passing criteria varied by age group.

QE’s individual success stories included bronze honours for Snehal and silver for Kavish Jayasekera, of Year 12, who said: “I feel proud of my silver: it meant I was in the top 2% of participants. The progression of the competition was very good, with a relatively easy qualification round, and subsequent rounds building on the concepts and ideas learnt in the last rounds. There was not a lot of preparation required for the first two rounds, as they were less time-pressured and I could look up specific concepts as needed, but I did go through some helpful functions in Python before the final round, as it helped when answering the timed programming questions.”

Rishabh Datta, of Year 10, said: “The problems in the pre-final round were difficult but not impossible, and I found it fun optimising code in unexpected ways. I was certainly happy with my 12 score – which was in the top 60% of the final-round participants – since I hadn’t ever officially studied computer science.”

Aaryan Prabhaker, also of Year 10, welcomed the competition as “a great opportunity outside of the curriculum…The three rounds became progressively difficult, and I loved how challenging it was through the variety of questions (coding, logic, research papers).”

It was, Year 11’s Kostiantyn Halushka agreed, a “splendid” competition: “Completing the final round questions in mere minutes was quite intense, but the adrenaline rush pushing me to keep working on the problems was fantastic.”

Vivaan Gupta relished the opportunity the competition gave him to learn more about computer science and would fully recommend it to others. “I took part since I enjoy coding,” he said.

Year 12 pupil Parv Gandhi, who, like Vivaan, was a final-round participant, added: “The ICSC was a great place where I could learn and really challenge myself!”

• Pictured above are Parv, Snehal, Kavish and Vivaan.

QE hosted some 42 robotics teams at this year’s Battle of Barnet – including three who flew in from Türkiye!

The VEX IQ robotics competition in the Shearly Hall not only saw 400 young people taking part, but also involved more than 70 volunteers, including many QE staff and sixth-formers.

It came after a busy term of action for QE’s robotics teams, including visits to competitions at Coventry and Stowe School in Buckinghamshire.

Award-winners in Barnet included QE’s own Gear Squad, who took the Innovate Award, as well as Team Omega, who won the coveted Design Award.

Head of Digital Teaching & Learning Michael Noonan said: “The Battle for Barnet is now well established as one of the largest regional VEX tournaments – and this year’s event certainly drew in the crowds from near and far! Well done to our boys on their performance and many thanks to the volunteers, who did such a great job both before and during the event.

“These large-scale competitions provide QE students and other teams with the opportunity to qualify for four awards, which can them secure a place at the VEX National Championships in Telford next year, and potentially advancement to the VEX World Championship in the United States in April.”

Mr Noonan thanked OE Husain Alaswad (2017–2025), 2025 VEX Volunteer of the Year, who was Head Referee: “His expertise was instrumental in the success of the event.”

He also singled out Avi Goel, of Year 11, who “dedicated weeks of effort alongside his talented team to ensure an outstanding AV set-up, great music, and exhilarating lighting”.

QE’s Battle for Barnet was this year given the theme of Space Battle.

The event comprised the:

• Robot Skills Challenge: A single robot is evaluated on both autonomous and driver-controlled performance.
• Teamwork Challenge: two teams collaborate during a 60-second match to score as many points as possible by completing tasks such as stacking game objects;

The competition’s Teamwork Champions, were named as HABS Hornets and VEX Ninjas. VEX Ninjas included Alessandro Yu Spagnolo from Year 8 and his twin sister, who attends Queen Elizabeth’s Girls’ School.

QE competitor Vidyut Naryan said: “It was a really great experience, easily the best competition in the UK. Our Team, Gear Grinders, achieved 3rd in ‘skills’ with a score of 95, including 24 on ‘autonomous’.”

Vidyut’s fellow Year 8 pupil, Ehan Rattani, added: “Me and the rest of the Fusion Force team learnt a lot and enjoyed showcasing our skills at such a brilliantly organised competition.”

QE’s four older robotics teams have also been performing well in the V5RC competitions – one at Stowe, one in Coventry and two at the John Warner School in Hoddesdon.

Year 12’s Team Hybrid were Tournament Champions in the second John Warner School competition, were losing finalists at Stowe, and picked up no fewer than three Design Awards, as well as a Robot Skills Award.

Year 10’s Team Nova shone brightly, too, winning a Build Award at Coventry, where another Year 10 team, Z-TBC, reached the semi-finals.

• Click on the thumbnails to view the images.

Sixth-former Paarth Aggarwal has again won the national category for his age group in a global technology competition. 

Paarth’s AI-powered app for visually impaired people took first prize among UK entrants in Intel’s AI Global Impact Festival 2025. 

Paarth last year won the same UK prize, having then entered an app that offered personalised learning to children with autism.  

Congratulating him, QE’s Head of Technology, Bilaal Khan, said: “Many congratulations to Paarth, who has shown great initiative in pursuing these opportunities: his enthusiasm for the exciting possibilities that AI and other new technologies offer is inspiring.” 

Intel’s annual challenge aims to encourage next-generation technologists and to showcase AI innovations and impact. This year, there were more than 1,000 entries worldwide.  

On learning of his success as the winner for the UK AI Changemakers category for ages 13–17, Paarth, of Year 12, said:  “The competition was challenging and it required me to put in countless hours researching, developing, and refining the project, which focused on enhancing independence for individuals with visual impairments.” 

Called NavigateAssist, his winning app describes the surroundings in natural language, so helping to reduce feelings of isolation, thereby boosting self-confidence and fostering independence in visually impaired people. 

Users can take a picture of their surroundings, or of an object, and ask questions, receiving detailed answers in real time. This helps them navigate the world more easily. 

Paarth hopes his success will “encourage more students to explore the world of AI, inspire them to become the next generation of AI innovators, and realise the limitless possibilities for them in their future life”. 

He wins a prize worth $100 and a certificate. 

Tech spec
NavigateAssist uses AI, including GenAI, a subset of artificial intelligence that focuses on creating new content. 

To build the app, Paarth used Intel’s Core Ultra processor and its OpenVINO software toolkit running on the company’s AIDevCloud. 

• To watch Paarth’s video entry and learn more about the app, click here.