Viewing archives for Alumni Newsletter

Service and sacrifice informed the special remembrance assembly held at the School to mark the centenary of the Armistice in 1918.

All boys from Years 7–10, together with staff and many senior pupils, took part in the ceremony, which featured music, poetry and a procession by the Combined Cadet Force.

In an address to the assembly, Old Elizabethan and Governor Ken Cooper (1942-50), a former officer in the Royal Warwickshire Regiment, charted the course of the war, making clear the scale of the conflict and its great cost. He explained how the emergence of trench warfare on the Western Front led to combat that lasted for months and years yet resulted in minimal or no territorial gains for either side.

The Headmaster read aloud the names of the 48 Old Elizabethans killed during World War I, whilst the names of the 65 who died in World War II were projected on to a screen. The two-minute silence at 11 o’clock was heralded by six of QE’s senior trumpeters sounding the Last Post.

At the end of the assembly, the CCF contingent marched with the commemorative wreath to the War Memorial located in the Crush Hall, where it was placed.

Separately, Year 12 historians had a special tour of the Imperial War Museum’s World War I centenary exhibition, courtesy of alumnus Dr Ian Kikuchi. Ian (OE 1997-2004) curated the exhibition and answered questions both about the war and about the logistics of curating major exhibitions.

Alumni continue to support QE by giving careers talks. This term’s included a lunchtime lecture by Samir Manek (OE 2001–2008), a litigator working at the heart of the UK’s financial regulatory system as an Associate (Solicitor) with the Financial Conduct Authority. He urged on QE’s aspiring lawyers the importance of a genuine passion for the Law.

Two younger lawyers, Suraj Sangani (OE 2005-2012) and Izzet Hassan (also 2005-2012), gave boys in Years 11-13 insights into how to pursue a career in Law, with both stressing the importance of preparation and persistence. Izzet, who is a Future Trainee Solicitor at London-based multinational firm, Slaughter and May, graduated with an LLB in Law from the University of Warwick before completing an MPhil in Criminology at Cambridge. Suraj followed an alternative route, reading History at Warwick before being recruited by Hogan Lovells, which has joint headquarters in London and Washington, where he is a Trainee Solicitor.

And Civil Service economist Andrei Sandu (OE 2007-2014) told senior boys that he was already advising a Government Minister at a European summit, just a few short months after starting his job. Andrei joined the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) as part of the economists’ group of the Civil Service Fast Stream in August last year. In the autumn of 2017, he was called upon to attend a Council of Ministers summit in Brussels, where he advised Lord Henley, of BEIS, throughout the session.

Piers Martin was part of a relay team that successfully swam the English Channel in rough conditions and raised more than £6,000 for Autism East Midlands. Yet, even though the team were eminently suited to the challenge – Piers (OE 1987–1994) is a high-performance sport and business consultant and a former national-level swimming champion, while two of his fellow team-members are water polo coaches – the swim almost didn’t happen. Because of worsening weather, the authorising organisation, the Channel Swimming and Piloting Association (CSPA) had called off the swim, only to give the team an eleventh-hour reprieve after they had already left Dover and were heading home.

George the Poet (George Mpanga, OE 2002–2009) has raised his already-high profile still further by appearing on TV screens in both the public and private spheres. A keen advocate of social justice, George investigated how and why the capital’s poor residents are losing out as council homes disappear for an Inside Out London current affairs programme on BBC1. He also starred in a new commercial for O2 reflecting on the wonder of Planet Earth and the transitory nature of human life.

Akshay Ruparelia’s fast-expanding online estate agency, Doorsteps.co.uk, launched a second crowdfunding round during the autumn – and smashed its £400,000 target within seconds of the offer going live. Akshay (OE 2009–2016) made national headlines last year after the first fundraising, with the young entrepreneur’s age attracting journalists’ admiration.

Fronting the latest fundraising drive, he explained that the money raised, which eventually came to nearly £900,000, will pay for more staff and additional investment in technology as the company grows.

Performance coach Kam Taj (Kamran Tajbaksh, OE 2004–2011) has published a new book offering students his own innovative and detailed holistic approach to achieving success as a student.

Entitled The Ultimate Guide to Exam Success, the book is the latest in a series published through UniAdmissions, an education consultancy which helps students applying to Oxbridge and medical schools.

The first four chapters of the 182-page paperback are on: time-management, study tools & techniques; mind-management and on-the-day performance. “Unlike any other book on exams, the final four chapters are on optimising our lifestyle so we can stay physically and mentally healthy throughout our studies,” Kam adds.

Announcing its publication, Kam told his Facebook followers: “In many ways, I wrote this book for my younger self – it’s everything I wished I knew as a student and teenager.”

This term began with Queen Elizabeth’s School still in celebratory mood following our superlative results at both GCSE and A-level.

New records were set in August, with the number of GCSE examinations awarded the A* grade hitting 78%. At A-level, we recorded our highest-ever total of A* grades, while 2018 was the 13th consecutive year in which the proportion of examinations awarded A*–B grades – a commonly used benchmark figure – has topped 95%.

Since then, external sources have further confirmed and corroborated our success. First came a Government league table showing that QE is the top selective school in England when measured against the Department for Education’s Progress 8 figure, which records progress between the end of Key Stage 2 (the last year of primary school) and GCSE results in Year 11. Our Progress 8 figure of 1.22 placed us ahead of any other grammar school and 15th out of the 6,530 schools and colleges measured. Furthermore, the School comfortably outperformed all 14 schools above it when compared against two other Government measures, Attainment 8 and the English Baccalaureate (EBacc), both of which are methods of recording pupils’ achievement in key GCSE subjects.

That was followed by evidence of the School’s success in providing high-calibre careers education emerging in a national survey conducted by recruitment consultancy Rare. This found that more boys from QE apply to graduate recruitment programmes run by blue-chip law, finance and management firms than from any other state boys’ school.

More recently still, QE was crowned the country’s top state school in the Sunday Times Parent Power survey, overtaking the 2017 winners, The Henrietta Barnett School, to head the table comprising the 150 leading state schools. This highly influential survey determines ranking based on the percentage of examination entries gaining A* to B grades at A-level (which is given double weighting) and the percentage of entries awarded A* and A grades at GCSE.

QE may perhaps with some justification now lay claim to being considered the UK’s leading state school. Precisely because of that, it is important that our horizons as a school are broad and expansive, and that we encourage, train and nurture our pupils so that they can excel in our increasingly interconnected world. This term’s commemoration of the centenary of the 1918 Armistice stands, among other things, as a warning, a sobering reminder of the potentially disastrous consequences of narrow nationalism. And whatever the outcome of the current turbulent period surrounding Brexit, Britain’s future leaders in society, commerce and academia will need to be equipped to thrive both in Europe and beyond.

Major employers frequently lament the dearth of readily employable graduates who are globally-minded, cross-culturally competent, and, preferably, able to speak another language other than English. To gain such a global perspective, boys need to acquire ‘soft skills’ such as open-mindedness, the ability to listen carefully to others, interest in other cultures, adaptability and curiosity. All of these attributes are in fact adumbrated in aspects of our mission, which, for example, enjoins the School to encourage “independence of thought” and to focus “the boys’ attention on their own development and aspirations, both at the School and beyond”.

It is tremendously important that boys develop and maintain a broad outlook alongside their achievement of very strong academic results if they are to thrive. One foundation of such a holistic approach is that boys begin reflecting upon their own lives and attitudes as they start finding their place in the world. Two of our alumni, poet Anthony Anaxagorou (OE 1994–1999) and Bilal Harry Khan (OE 2003–2010, featured elsewhere in this newsletter) explored the sometimes-tricky areas of identity, masculinity and gender roles when they visited this term, with Bilal speaking to Year 11 and Anthony delivering a Sixth Form assembly. Alongside and related to these areas, we recognise the importance of boys looking outwards in their relationships, adopting habits of kindness, thoughtfulness and respect for others. By so doing, not only do boys establish better relationships, but they also stand to gain themselves.

For those seeking to learn how to operate effectively in a global environment, it is important, too, that their relationships include some with people from other walks of life and from other cultures. There are frequent opportunities for boys to broaden their horizons through purposeful international travel. Whether these are sports tours or subject-related trips organised by academic departments, such visits always deepen intercultural understanding.

For our senior boys, we are encouraging the increasing aspiration of many to study abroad. A sizeable group of our Year 12 boys have been working this term with our visiting interns from the University of Connecticut and others as they prepare to submit applications to US universities. Visits from recent leavers, such as Valavan Ananthakumaraswamy (OE 2009-2016), the first QE boy ever to be offered a place at Stanford University, provide further inspiration.

I wish all our alumni a Merry Christmas and a peaceful and prosperous New Year.

Neil Enright

Filmmaker and academic Dr Frederick Baker’s virtual reality experience based on the work of  artist Gustav Klimt has proved immensely popular with experts and the public alike.

The experience, entitled Klimt’s Magic Garden, firstly won Fred a Silver Medal for Cinematic Virtual Reality at the European Virtual Reality Halo Awards in Amsterdam.

It was then such a hit in Klimt’s Austrian homeland that its run was extended by nearly six months, eventually being shown from February until early October in Vienna’s MAK (Museum of Applied Arts). And now it is now being staged at a leading arts centre in Brussels.

Timed to coincide with the centenary of the artist’s death this year, Klimt’s Magic Garden  was inspired by the series of three mosaics that the Art Nouveau doyen created for the Stoclet Palace, also in Brussels. To produce the experience, Fred (OE 1976–1983) used high-resolution digital photographic material to create a rich virtual paradise, shimmering with the gold which Klimt was famous for using. He created the work in dialogue with art historians at the MAK.

In Klimt’s Magic Garden, which is experienced using virtual reality headsets, everything the viewer sees originally comes from Klimt, yet it has all been given depth, movement, and natural-style lighting. The experience features a digital spatial narrative structure that reflects the themes of expectation and fulfilment Klimt explored in his work for the Stoclet Palace.

Born in Salzburg but brought up in London, Fred studied Anthropology and Archaeology at St John’s College, Cambridge, Tübingen and Sheffield universities and went on to gain a PhD from Cambridge in 2009. He now lives in Vienna and London.

He was a Producer Director for the BBC, working for the corporation from 1994 to 2006. He is the owner of the Austrian film company, Filmbäckerei, and a College Research Association at the Centre for Film and Screen Media, Wolfson College, Cambridge.

He returned to St John’s in 2014 to create a hugely atmospheric screening of the film classic, The Third Man, which became the first film ever to be mapped on to the college’s Bridge of Sighs.

A specialist in Austrian cinema, he has published extensively on The Third Man – the Carol Reed-directed film starring Orson Welles, which was set in Vienna and used a screenplay by Graham Greene, who had also written it as a novella. As well as examining the film for his doctorate, Fred made a 90-minute documentary about its making, entitled Shadowing The Third Man.

He is also the founder of Cambridge’s annual international research symposium, Picturing Austrian Cinema, and has lectured at universities in Weimar and Berlin as well as at Middlesex University. The winner of numerous awards at film festivals from Cannes to Hollywood, Fred has made acclaimed documentaries on subjects including Stalin and Rebuilding the Reichstag (about the reconstruction of the German parliament building overseen by the architect, Norman Foster).

• Klimt’s Magic Garden runs at the Palais des Beaux-Arts (also known as BOZAR) in Brussels until 20th January 2019. A sample of the experience is available on YouTube.

Bilal Harry Khan is fast becoming a leading voice on issues of social justice, race and masculinity.

In recent months, Bilal has featured in a number of BBC news and current affairs programmes and has launched a successful podcast with fellow Cambridge graduates, all ‘black and mixed-race guys’, looking at life, diversity and the challenges faced after graduation. One recent episode of the podcast featured an interview with Stormzy, following the artist’s decision to sponsor scholarships at the university for black students.

Bilal (OE 2003–2010), who turned freelance in August this year, works as a facilitator running diversity and inclusion training workshops with corporate clients. He visited the School this term to deliver a talk to Year 11 on Masculinity, identity and you.

Earlier in the year, Bilal was a panellist on BBC Radio 4’s Woman’s Hour, also speaking about masculinity.

He was interviewed on the BBC World Service about his mixed-race heritage in the run-up to the wedding of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle. The royal bride had spoken of her confusion as a child when asked to describe her race and of the enduring impact of her mixed-race background during her acting career.

Bilal told presenter Nora Kim of his own experiences as a person from a mixed-race background. His father is Kenyan of South Asian heritage and his mother is Jamaican from a mixed-race (East Asian and black Caribbean) heritage.

He recalled a time when he was out with some of his QE schoolmates: “Most of my friends were Asian. Someone’s girlfriend said ‘Oh, you are the black friend.’” This conversation caused him to reflect at the time that “my identity is based on how other people perceive me”.

When used in the UK, the term ‘mixed-race’ is generally presumed to mean a combination of white and ‘something else’, he said, yet that did not describe him or many other people. “Perhaps we need to change the definition to include people like myself, like my mum,” he said.

More recently, he has been interviewed by the BBC’s Global Gender & Identity Correspondent, Megha Mohan. In the website article, he related the challenges of living in the UK with a name that is unfamiliar to many – including one occasion when he visited a school (not QE) and a teacher introduced him in assembly as ‘Harry’ even though he had been repeatedly emailing the teacher and signing himself off as ‘Bilal’. The teacher later told him that ‘Bilal’ would have been “difficult” for the children, although in fact many of them had come up to him after his talk and said his name perfectly.

In his parting shot in the article, Bilal made a plea: “Children in the UK should be able to grow up loving and being proud of their names. You can play a part in that by learning to pronounce them properly. It is not that hard. If you can say ‘Tchaikovsky’, you can pronounce our names.”

His lecture to Year 11 this term, which was delivered together with Akash Vaghela (OE 2003-2010), had the overall title of Finding your passion, with Bilal focusing on Masculinity, identity and you. His own passion, Bilal told the boys, was for “social equality and change, youth empowerment, equal opportunity”.

After leaving QE, Bilal read Theology at Cambridge. While there, he met the three friends with whom he launched the Over the Bridge podcast in March this year.

Since graduating, he has worked as a youth engagement officer in Barnet and then, for more than four years, for WE, a Toronto-based non-profit organisation working globally with young people and families.

With representatives from more than 50 businesses and organisations – most of them old boys – the 2018 QE Careers Convention was our biggest ever, writes Headmaster Neil Enright.

Volunteers gathered early for a reception and the chance to network in Café 1573. Later, there was a tremendous buzz on the convention floor as alumni shared their experiences and answered questions from Year 11 boys and their parents.

It was an evening that featured a mix of both structured presentations and extensive opportunities for informal conversations between the volunteers and the Year 11 boys with their parents.

We want our boys to be as aware as possible of the many different possibilities that are out there for them, and I am pleased to say that this convention did exactly that, showcasing a very broad range of opportunities. It is always incredibly useful for the boys to be able to seek advice from those who have been at the School and who have had the experience of establishing themselves in their chosen fields.

I was really delighted to see so many alumni there, giving something back, reconnecting with their peers – and clearly enjoying themselves in the process! Many were young professionals who have left the School in the past decade or so.

In addition to representatives of the major professions, those present at the convention included a good number who have forged a path in more unusual careers, such as:

• Sergio Ronchetti (OE 2004-2011), who gave a presentation on Sound Design in Video Games
• Kane Evans (OE 2003-2010), who, after working for Manchester United, now works as a business analyst for Formula 1
• Phil Peters (OE 1997-2004) who leads e-commerce operation Zing Zing, vying to be ‘the best Chinese takeout in the world’
• Civil Service Economist Andrei Sandu (OE 2007-2014) who found himself advising a Government Minister at a European summit just months after beginning his career upon graduating
• Ashish Patel (OE 1997-2004), a medical doctor who is now Head of Research at a venture capital firm. He gave a presentation on Medicine, AI and Venture Capital.

Of course, in addition to supporting this event, OE contributions have done much to boost the broader careers and university preparation programmes that we run throughout the year.

It is a real strength of the Elizabethan community that OEs are so willing to be active in supporting the current boys – and naturally I hope to see even more alumni there at next year’s Careers Convention.

The 123rd Old Elizabethans Association Annual Dinner brought together old boys of all eras for an evening offering both formality and fun.

The evening featured the customary speeches and time-honoured toasts, but there was also opportunity aplenty for alumni to chat with old classmates and strike up new friendships in a relaxed and convivial environment.

As is usual at the dinner, there was a particularly strong turnout from the ‘ten-year leavers’ – those who started in Year 7 in 2002 and will therefore mark ten years since they left the School in summer 2009 at the end of this academic year.

Guest speaker Alan Ingham (OE 1987–1994) entertained his fellow alumni with his recollections of School life during an era of great international uncertainty, recounting the confident prediction of one teacher that the Berlin Wall would not fall in his lifetime – just months before it did.

Alan, a senior software developer with electronic trading company Nex Group, attended with his fiancée, Ana Maria Soler Castells, whom he was marrying on the following day. He had, therefore, been very busy in the run-up to the dinner, he said, but added that the resilience one learns as a QE boy had stood him in good stead as he strove to cope with these competing demands!

Reflecting on the evening afterwards, Headmaster Neil Enright said: “There was a lovely atmosphere at this dinner – a reflection, I am sure, of the increasing connections being made by our alumni both with each other and with the School.

“We are always keen to welcome alumni here and I know many OEs value the opportunity to visit, to see what has changed and often to check out who among their old teachers are still here. Many also take time during such visits to reflect on what they have gained in life by being a pupil at QE, and it is this appreciation which is driving so many to volunteer to help current boys and give something back.”

In his speech on the evening itself, the Headmaster began by welcoming all the guests: “Tonight is an opportunity for reflection, reconnection and celebration.”

Mr Enright reserved a special welcome the ten-year leavers, the class of 2002-2009 (or 2002-2007 for those who did A-levels elsewhere). They were, he said, a “fun, friendly and very successful cohort”, noting that they had started at QE on Monday 2nd September 2002, thus coinciding with his own arrival as a young teacher.

Those from this group who attended the dinner included Commonwealth Games triple-jump finalist Nathan Fox and George ‘the Poet’ Mpanga, the high-profile spoken-word artist who spoke in front of the Queen on Commonwealth Day and who performed a specially commissioned poem as part of the international TV coverage of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s wedding.

The Headmaster outlined a number of “big themes” which are currently being considered as part of the School’s long-term development. One of them is “keeping in touch” – which includes drawing on the experience and insight of OEs to assist current boys, many of whom are the first in their families to apply to top universities or to try to enter the most competitive professions.

The formal proceedings included toasts to Queen Elizabeth II and to “the pious memory of Queen Elizabeth I” (by tradition, honoured in silence). School Captain Aashish proposed the toast to the association, with the response given by the association’s Chairman, Martyn Bradish (OE 1962–1969). This was followed by the toast to the School proposed by guest speaker Alan Ingham, with the Headmaster giving the response.

Association President Ken Cooper (OE 1942–1950) presented the School Captain with the Eric Shearly Memorial Prize for Outstanding Commitment. The citation noted Aashish’s “modest and quiet commitment to the life of the School.” It continued: “His talents and involvements are many and diverse; he has been a success at each stage of his academic career, attaining the top grade in every subject that he studied at GCSE and A-level, whilst also acting as form captain, colt prefect, and participating in rugby in each year group on his journey through the School. And he is an exceptional musician too!”

Aashish hopes to study Neuroscience at university and has already prepared for this by undertaking work experience in local hospitals and by examining neurological ways of treating depression in his Extended Project Qualification dissertation.

The guests enjoyed a smoked salmon rillette with pickled beetroot and pea shoots and a main course of roast belly of pork with roasted new potatoes, followed by Eton Mess for dessert, topped off with coffee and mints.