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Now flourishing as a photographer in Austria, Gavin Otter is a prime example of how life and careers can take unexpected turns.

He was neither a linguist nor a sportsman at School, yet Gavin (OE 1984–1989) is now fluent in German and an enthusiastic marathon-runner, skier, climber and snowboarder.

He is also a qualified paramedic with the Austrian Red Cross, having come second in his class in a course that was taught entirely in German. He taught himself the language, simply learning it from those around him and from the media.

Upon leaving School, Gavin had originally planned to go first to university and then into the army, but ended up doing neither. “I don’t regret that at all. I have studied other things, which I believe have benefited me more.”

He worked in marketing & sales and originally came to Austria with a former business partner to set up an events company. “We had that for seven years and my business partner still runs it, but I moved on purely because it was not making me any money. I learnt a lot, though, and it was fun. You have never really learnt anything until you fail: just stand up and do something even better.”

He first started developing an interest in photography in around 2007 and has been a been a professional photographer for some three years. “It evolved into something that is now a business,” he says. He works on a variety of assignments, including weddings, documentaries and commercial projects and says: “I am fortunate to be surrounded by some of Austria’s most stunning scenery, as well as some fascinating people.”

Gavin lives in the beautiful Austrian Tyrol and in a recent project for his blog, A Month of Colour, he photographed subjects ranging from his two small boys at play to summer views of the mountains and, from a visit back to the UK, a picture of the QE main building.

His advice for others considering a move into a similar career is: “Make sure you have another source of income as well; you are not going to be David Bailey overnight and it takes a while to build up a business. It is fun, though, building a business and watching it grow.

“If there’s anything I would like to pass on, especially to the boys at School currently, it’s this: don’t quit – you don’t know what you are going to do tomorrow and anything can happen. You can plan your life ahead…but things develop and you have to look for opportunities and go with what you feel is right.”

Frankie Vu’s burgeoning career combines roles as a live sports host and children’s TV presenter with the world of freestyle football.

Frankie (Francis) appears on the CBBC and Disney XD children’s channels, acts as host at Arsenal’s Champions League home matches and is a professional freestyler.

He attended QE from 2000 to 2008, enjoying some early career breakthroughs while still at School. He once raced from an AS examination straight to Manchester to appear in a music video. In the video, for The Way I Are (sic) by the American rapper, producer and DJ, Timbaland, Frankie is seen performing as a freestyler. (Freestyle football is the art of self-expression with a football, with players performing tricks using various parts of their body.)

“I was still at QE when I won the UK football freestyle championship in 2006,” he says. “This actually stemmed from a serious sports injury that I had sustained the previous year: I found that football freestyle was a good way to work on my rehab during the long period I had to spend away from team sports.

“I fell in love with the process of getting something wrong so many times and of eventually succeeding, but in my own time and on my terms.”

On leaving QE, Frankie studied English Language & Communication at King’s College London.

“I was unsure what I wanted to do after university, so during the holidays I completed two summer internships at Centrica and Barclays. Although I enjoyed both, I wasn't convinced that either was a good ‘fit’.

“However, in my final year I had attended a talk on careers in the media. One thing led to another and eventually I was invited to screen-test for Disney. Then – and this is a very condensed version of the story! – I secured my first TV contract at the end of the summer.”

Since then, he has been a host for the fencing and taekwondo events at London Olympics and for the wheelchair fencing at the 2012 Paralympic Games, as well as for other live sporting events, including rugby and NFL and at the Emirates Stadium, where he interviews stars from the past for Arsenal’s Champions Club.

His TV work includes exploring the world of the future in CBBC’s Technobabble show – an interest he has also demonstrated in videos from the Mobile World Congress and through fronting previews for the Gadget Show Live.

Frankie has his own YouTube channel and is very much at home in the online world, being close to well-known ‘vloggers’ including Zoella (Zoe Elizabeth Sugg), Marcus Butler, Caspar Lee and Jim Chapman.

• Frankie can be contacted through social media on @theFrankieVu

Edmund Watson is now forging a successful career as a doctor after shining both at School and at Oxford.

While at QE, Edmund (OE 1999–2006) was a gold medal-winner in the Biology Olympiad and won distinctions in his Advanced Extension Awards, before going on to Oxford University to read Medicine. As an undergraduate, he won various Collections prizes and earned Exhibitioner status during his first year, following this up with a Scholarship in his second, before graduating with a first-class degree in his third.

“I had a fantastic time at university – Brasenose is a very friendly college and I was very lucky to encounter a great group of friends, as well as the girlfriend who is now my wife,” he says. He took the opportunity to indulge his love of music and enjoyed singing with the Brasenose Choir, becoming a Choral Scholar. He also played clarinet regularly with the university’s Wind Orchestra, performing in locations as varied as Northampton, Glasgow and Israel.

During his post-graduate clinical training at Oxford, he was awarded a distinction in his Finals and a Prize Viva. He particularly relished his elective study placements in Malaysian Borneo and the National Institutes of Health in Maryland, USA. He continued to pursue his interest in singing, forming an a capella choir group, The Ultrasounds, and devoted many hours to his role as treasurer for the Osler House Club, a 450-strong society for medical students.

He began working as a junior doctor in 2013 at Gloucestershire Royal Hospital, and whilst there he joined the Gloucester Choral Society. In the following year, he moved on to north Bristol’s Southmead Hospital, before taking up his post with North West Thames Foundation School, which includes ‘rotations’ in clinical haematology, cardiology and renal medicine at the Hammersmith and Harefield Hospitals.

Edmund was able to deliver some teaching in his final year of Medical School, as well as designing a two-week course for fourth-year medical students. He has continued to teach as a junior doctor, delivering various ‘bedside teaching’ sessions to Bristol University students.

Having realised early in his medical studies that he enjoyed research, he is keen to be involved in it and in education in the future. A member of the Royal College of Physicians, he hopes to become a consultant haematologist.

Edmund was guest of honour at the School’s 2016 Founder’s Day thanksgiving service.

Characteristically modest, he began the main part of his address to the congregation at Chipping Barnet Parish Church by saying: “I still see myself as a ‘work-in-progress’, and I definitely am not sure that I deserve the honour of being invited to speak to you here today.”

He then told the boys: “As you go through the rest of your careers at QE, use those wonderful brains of yours to think, and to make the most of this remarkable School environment – whose 443rd Birthday we celebrate today – to help you become masters of asking good questions.” Those questions should be about themselves, about others and about the world around them, he said.

The service featured the traditional prayers for the School, as well as Bible readings, hymns and music by Vivaldi, Brahms, Rutter and Hubert Parry. Afterwards, the boys, staff and guests processed to the School, where, in time-honoured fashion, Headmaster Neil Enright gave the roll call in front of the Main Building. The School Chronicle was also read aloud – a tradition started by Ernest H Jenkins, in 1930.

As well as Edmund, the VIP party included: his wife, Emma, and parents; the Chairman of Governors Barrie Martin and his wife, Perin; Rector of Chipping Barnet Reverend Chris Ferris; and the Deputy Mayor of Barnet, Cllr Sury Khatri and his wife and Deputy Mayoress, Tara Khatri.

Having secured his PhD, Benjamin Lichman now works at one of the world’s leading centres for plant product research.

Benjamin (OE 2000–2007), who in the summer of 2016 received his doctorate from University College London, took up a post-doctoral appointment at the John Innes Centre in Norwich. His research interests concern complex organic molecules of value to humankind and, specifically, the mechanism and evolution of biosynthetic enzymes.

Just a few days after the PhD ceremony, he was himself handing out awards when he was Guest of Honour at QE’s Junior Awards Ceremony.

Benjamin followed in the footsteps of two older brothers when he came to the School as a young boy. He was a keen flautist at School, playing in various QE ensembles, while also being involved in debating. After gaining straight As in his A-levels, he went on to gain a first-class degree in Natural Sciences at Emmanuel College, Cambridge, where he also won the college prize in 2008, 2009 and 2011, and a Davies Scholarship in 2008.

In his address at Junior Awards in the School Hall, he reflected on writing his doctoral thesis, which, he said, comprised 316 pages and 86,729 words. He told the assembled boys: “The whole four years involved working on an enzyme found in plants which helps create some of humanity’s most valuable medicines. You study so many different subjects. I think you are very lucky – I just spent the last four years studying a single molecule!”

The Junior Awards ceremony rewards boys in Years 7, 8 and 9 for their achievements. It features musical interludes which this year included pieces by Mozart, Fauré and Devienne. VIP guests included the Mayor and Mayoress of Barnet, Cllr David Longstaff, and Ms Gillian Griffiths.

Benjamin recalled his own first academic award: a Year 7 prize for public-speaking. Praising the School, which he said had been “central to my journey”, he urged the prize-winners not to be complacent in the future and warned them against excessive competitiveness and viewing their successes in comparison with others.

He urged the importance of asking questions, illustrating this by recalling in some detail the famous story of Alexander Fleming’s discovery of penicillin. Fleming, instead of throwing away agar plates which had accidentally become contaminated, was curious enough to ask what the effects of the fungal growth had been on the bacteria that had previously been spread on the plates. “And experiment followed by question followed by experiment (and on and on) eventually led to…the birth of the golden age of antibacterials, which saw the elimination of many types of infectious disease.”

It was important, too, not to stop asking questions, Benjamin said. The question “Are antibiotics good for human health?” would have been answered with a simple “yes” ten years ago, but, as the use of too many antibiotics has enabled some bacteria to gain resistance and become superbugs, it is now clear that that answer is not entirely true.

In his introduction, Headmaster Neil Enright thanked Benjamin for attending and spoke of the importance of reflection. Alluding to the annual appraisals that are a standard feature in the modern working world, Mr Enright said: “This time to stop and reflect is valued by both employers and employees alike, giving the opportunity to ask the questions that American poet and writer Carl Sandburg felt were so important to reflect on: ‘Who am I, where have I been, and where am I going?’”

Artist Stephen Walter has already achieved considerable success with his work both at home and abroad, but he remains ambitious for further recognition.

“I still believe that Art can make the world a better place, and that the best examples of works of art can elevate the human species towards the beauties and wonders of the world that we have inherited,” he says.

Stephen (OE 1987-1994) works in two forms – finely detailed semi-abstract landscapes and, secondly, maps and plans. Prints of his maps have become particularly sought-after.

His most famous work is his 2008 map of London, entitled The Island. This features tiny pencil notes indicating locations’ public and private associations, and is part-oral history, part-folklore and part-personal homage. The capital is shown as being adrift in a Home Counties sea: Stephen grew up in New Barnet, and Barnet is depicted as a coastal town.

The Island gained him some renown in 2010 when it was displayed alongside early hand-drawn maps of London at the acclaimed British Library exhibition, Magnificent Maps: Power, Propaganda and Art. Then last year, the same map was published in book form, which brought him further public attention, including a major interview in The Guardian.

Both maps and London have long been subjects of fascination to Stephen, who lives and works in the capital. His studio is at Fish Island on the River Lea close to the site of the 2012 Olympic Park. As a child, he enjoyed pondering over Tolkien’s map of Mordor, imagining what the landscape this represented was like.

At QE, Stephen, who is of English and German heritage, was taught by both the current Head of Art, Ashley West, and by Art teacher Stephen Buckeridge. “I have good memories from QE, especially from the Art Department,” he says. He remembers particularly the emphasis on Art History and the opportunities provided, such as the School arranging for his A-level class to set up studio for a week in the Slade School of Art. “QE formed the first segment and the foundations of the world-class education that I was so lucky to receive.”

Mr West – “a fine teacher and an important influence” – later arranged for him to return to the School for a period as an artist-in-residence, during which time he was commissioned to produce collages which remain displayed in the Fern Building to this day.

After School, he went on to study a Foundation course at Middlesex University, before taking a first in Fine Art at Manchester Metropolitan University. He progressed to The Royal College of Art (RCA) for his Master’s degree in 1999–2001 and then later to a fellowship at the Royal Academy of Arts. He has won a number of awards, including the RCA 2001 Drawing Prize. His most recent shows have included one this year at the Shapero Modern gallery in Mayfair.

Stephen’s own website describes his work as “an investigation into obsessive drawing techniques, semiotics, the glory of maps, and where landscape is seen a receptacle for meaning. Each work is an intricate world in itself. The maps are a tangle of words, symbols and drawn elements where cultural residues inhabit certain locations.”

He mainly works in two dimensions on paper through drawing, painting, photography, and reprographics and print.

Sports psychologist Mustafa Sarkar has gained international recognition, winning a major award for his PhD dissertation. Mustafa (OE 1997–2004) travelled to Phoenix, Arizona, to be presented with the Association for Applied Sport Psychology (AASP)’s 2016 Doctoral Dissertation Award in front of more than 1,000 conference delegates.

He is one of very few British psychologists to have gained such recognition from the AASP, which is dominated by Americans and Canadians. His PhD dissertation focused on resilience, one of his main professional interests, and he had the opportunity to present his findings at the conference at a panel discussion. He received his award from 2015–2016 AASP President Brent Walker.

In a letter congratulating him on the award, current AASP President Angus Mugford wrote: “In my opinion, your study will make a solid contribution to the knowledge base in sport psychology.”

The award was only the latest professional accolade for Mustafa, who is a Senior Lecturer in Sport and Exercise Psychology at Nottingham Trent University. He teaches both undergraduates and postgraduates, and leads the postgraduate module, Current Issues in Sport and Exercise Psychology.

At QE, Mustafa took A-levels in Economics, Chemistry and Mathematics and then, after a gap year, went to Loughborough University. He graduated in July 2008 with a first-class honours degree in Sport and Exercise Science.

He then went on to complete a Postgraduate Diploma in Psychology (with distinction) from Middlesex University. In 2009, he was named Xcel Sports Student of the Year, with the judges praising him for his academic work, for coaching cricket with Loughborough school children, for climbing five UK mountains for charity and for running the London Marathon for charity, raising £2,350.

Other awards he has won include Loughborough University’s Sir Robert Martin Faculty Prize for academic and non-academic achievements and the Head of School’s Postgraduate Prize for Academic Excellence, awarded annually to the student with the highest overall mark in a Master’s Programme. He also received the British Association of Sport and Exercise Sciences (BASES) Master’s Dissertation of the Year Award in 2011. In 2015, he won the British Psychological Society Division of Sport and Exercise Psychology PhD award.

Mustafa is married to Tasnim, a qualified speech therapist.