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Tony Norman has, he says, much reason to be grateful to Queen Elizabeth’s School, since “apart from getting me to university, the School also gave me my first taste of overseas travel”.

This “taste” consisted of “a third-form summer trip [Year 9, in today’s parlance] to Denmark and Sweden, and later the exchange visits with Dortmund and Berlin”.

And it was these trips, with their opportunities to sample other cultures, that set the course for a career that has seen him live and work in various countries, including Sweden and Germany. Now retired, Tony (OE 1955–1962) splits his time between the UK, Frankfurt and the Moselle valley, “where I own a delightful house set amongst the Riesling Weinberge [vineyards]”.

A copy of his memoirs, Growing up with Germany, which includes his reminiscences of learning German at QE, was recently placed in The Queen’s Library. In the foreword, Tony thanks his “very good friend, Richard Newton [OE 1956–1964], who, with his autobiographical The Borehamwood Boy, motivated, or rather shamed, me into getting my act and my thoughts together”. Like Richard, Tony is one of the BWBs, or Borehamwood boys. He is pictured, top, in the middle, with Richard on the right and his brother, Bryan Newton, on the left.

He opted for the languages package of A-levels at QE: Latin, English, French and German. He and his classmates had been learning the first three since they were 11. They did not start German, however, until Tony was 15: the young linguists were therefore expected to reach A-level standard in just three years.

“This ambitious goal needed something special and a special teacher. Enter K.L.E.W. Woodland or Clue (as in “I haven’t a …”) as he was known to staff and pupils alike. But he did (… have a clue). He was one of the many middle-aged bachelor teachers on the staff, who appeared to have been left behind by life. Disruption to career and life in general was almost certainly a consequence of the war.”

Yet while some of the teachers were a little embittered, KLEW, who was rumoured to have worked with British Intelligence at Bletchley Park and to have been a spy in Germany in the 1930s, was different. “Sure, he had a dry, sardonic wit, but it never came across as spiteful. In his grey suit and chalky gown, you felt he knew his stuff and that he liked his pupils, which could not have been easy.”

KLEW’s greatest contribution to Tony’s motivation and interest in learning German was his work in organising the Easter holiday exchange visits. “Clearly KLEW had his contacts in Germany and made them work.” He is in fact doubly indebted to his old teacher: although costs for the first trip, to Dortmund, were kept low, money was tight for Tony’s family and they could not afford it, so KLEW secured a scholarship from Hertfordshire County Council.

The trips not only featured time in a German Gymnasium (grammar school) and visits to industrial sites, but also more unexpected opportunities, such as the chance to sample copious quantities of wine with the exotic Graf Matuschka, a German count who was the co-ordinator for the 1962 exchange.

“The exchange visits, in addition to experiencing German, Germans and Germany first-hand, developed me personally. As the Gruppenleiter, I was spokesman for our group, liaised with the local contacts and made small speeches of thanks at the steelworks and the brewery, hastily scribbled on the back of beer mats. In a strange way I felt less constrained and more confident abroad than back home in London, which probably explains why I have spent so much of my time outside the UK.” Tony is pictured here with his friend and classmate, Colin Lennard, on a visit to Berlin in 1963.

With the British Council having reported this year that language-learning is still in decline in England’s schools, Tony, who recently got in touch with QE’s Head of Languages, Nora Schlatte, is “pleasantly surprised” to hear that QE’s German department is thriving. (Twelve boys completed a German A-level in the summer.)

He went on from QE to read German at Nottingham University from 1963-1966, which included half a year in Freiburg. “My main memory is playing rugby for the university and being selected for Notts, Lincs and Derby and UAU Midlands. Rugby shadowed my travels and I also played for Frankfurt SC 1880 and, in the twilight of my rugby career, for Stockholm Exiles RFC.” One key difference with UK rugby union is that the Swedish season runs from May to September: “snow and ice are better suited to ice hockey!

“After university I embarked on what was retrospectively a self-organised gap year, albeit lasting two years.” This involved initially going to Sweden to teach English. “I then drifted into the travel business and was a resort representative for a Swedish tour operator in Dubrovnik, in what was then Tito’s Yugoslavia.”

He subsequently returned to the UK and was recruited as a graduate trainee by the mighty ICI (Imperial Chemical Industries), then Britain’s biggest manufacturer. “My final interview before joining ICI in 1967 was with a director. He told me I would be based in Runcorn. As a Londoner, I had no idea where Runcorn was, so I asked him. The answer was priceless: ‘If you imagine the Mersey as the arsehole of England, then Runcorn’s half-way up it.’”

He eventually concluded that it was not the career for him – “Selling salt, soda and various acids in Stoke-on-Trent was not my cup of coffee” – and after some three years he moved back into teaching. He was appointed to a role in charge of marketing specialist EFL [English as a Foreign Language] courses for the Colchester English Study Centre, a subsidiary of Oxford University Press.

“There then followed a four-year period of experimenting, searching and despair, finally ending in 1974 with my setting up my own EFL organisation, Target Language Services, focusing on teaching English to companies and their managers.” Individual managers came to the language school in London, while Tony and his trainers also ran in-house programmes for German companies, such as Bosch, Siemens and Daimler, in Germany.

In 1980, he went back to Sweden with his family (his first wife, Chris, being Swedish). “I sort of dropped out, closed the school in London and focused on developing and delivering in-house seminars in Germany. A senior manager at one of my clients, Schering Pharmaceuticals, then convinced, and helped, me to refocus on personal and organisational development. My USP was running management training programmes in English for German companies with international subsidiaries, which was almost all of them.”

Through learning on the job and imitating the successes of others, he developed his skills. “I started to cooperate with UK-based training and development organisations by delivering their programmes in Germany in German and English. By this time, 1976, I had left Sweden and moved to Germany.”

The 1980s brought two important career developments for Tony. “First of all, I became a partner at Consensus Consulting, which became – and is to this day – the vehicle for my management training courses.

“The second development sprang from a chance conversation with one of the ex-pat rugby players in Frankfurt. He was interested in my now-dormant EFL interests, so Target Language Services was resurrected and re-launched as Target Training. Over the years I have been involved with these two organisations, and still have shares – and an emotional interest – in both companies.”

From 1990 – 2010, Tony developed and ran training projects in the US, UK, Germany, Scandinavia and the Far East. The fall of the Berlin Wall and German reunification also presented opportunities in the ex-communist countries in Eastern Europe. If he were pressed to specify what his focus was during this period, Tony says it would have been “international leadership and intercultural communication and cooperation”.

Tony carried on working until his early 70s and today keeps busy through his hobbies. These include music: “I have always dabbled in pop, rock and blues.” He played drums with a band, the Square Pegs, while at Nottingham, and also played the guitar. Family and work commitments prevented him from pursuing this much until recent years, when he started jamming with a number of musicians. “This culminated in the making of my Nostalgia CD and, a year later, my debut and farewell concert, both on the same evening, at the Wienerhof in Offenbach-Bieber.” The concert near Frankfurt, which featured Tony Norman and The Nostalgia All Stars, took place in 2018.

He has two daughters with his first wife, Annika and Katja. Besides music and spending time with family and friends, Tony says “I garden, do wood-carving and try to become a wine connoisseur. Prost! – or, your health!”

Harvard undergraduate Che Applewhaite’s first-ever documentary found success at an international film festival.

Che’s film, A New England Document, was an official selection at the 2020 Sheffield Doc/Fest (Sheffield International Documentary Festival) and had its premiere online during the summer. He is now working on a second documentary during his final year at Harvard.

The 16-minute A New England Document profiles the work of 20th-century ethnographers Lorna and Lawrence Marshall, using images and text from the Marshall Collection at Harvard University’s Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology. But, as well as recounting their expeditions in Africa, Che (OE 2010–2017) also explores his own concerns with history, with colonialism and with anthropology. He is currently studying Anthropology and History & Literature at Harvard and is due to graduate in May 2021.

In a director’s statement written to accompany the launch of the film, Che said he aimed to show “what the archive didn’t intend”. The 40,000-plus photos in the collection extensively depict the indigenous peoples of the Kalahari, but Che pointed out that few are of the Marshall family, “much less of its patriarch – main expedition funder and co-founder of modern-day defense company Raytheon [Laurence Marshall]. Working with and against the silences in the archive required a polyphonic palimpsest of archival found footage, photographs and documents paired with my own shooting in the Peabody Museum, wider Cambridge, Massachusetts and Peterborough, New Hampshire.”

Che, who was born in Trinidad, told The Harvard Gazette staff writer Manisha Aggarwal-Schifellite in an interview: “I was interested in how [I could] reckon with the silences in the archives that prevent me from having a fuller understanding of my own history as a person under an empire.”

Starting in 1952, the Marshalls went on extended expeditions to the Kalahari Desert over four decades, amassing a collection of more than 40,000 photographs.

Che spent a term going through the photographs and diaries, and then learned some of the skills he needed to make a film, including storyboarding, camerawork and video-editing, helped by staff at Harvard’s Film Study Center.

He met New York Times writer Elizabeth Marshall Thomas, daughter of the collection’s creators, who invited him to film at her New Hampshire home. The finished film included readings of the diaries featuring both her voice and Che’s.

“Reading some of the things she has written and having conversations with her about her family helped strengthen the film,” he said. “I got to see how people [in a family] can have very different life paths and outcomes, and I wanted to show that in the film.”

Che’s website describes the resulting work as “fragmentary counterpoint upon the haunting sounds of archival ghosts – of future possibility arising from once-known pasts”.

During Sheffield Doc/Fest, Che was a contributor to a virtual panel session, Decolonizing Documentary.

He is now continuing to create films and is working on a creative senior thesis documentary, entitled In Loving Memory, which Che’s website describes as narrating “the experiential archives of a Black mother whose father and son breathe once more through her writings on grief and the young athletes she coaches at Normandy High School in St. Louis, Missouri”.

Despite the most difficult circumstances this term, Queen Elizabeth’s School has continued in extraordinary times to do all of our ordinary things well – not, of course, that there is anything ordinary about QE and the Elizabethan community.

I have been concerned by national media reports about children being educationally disadvantaged during lockdown. Thanks to the hard work of teaching and support staff, QE boys do not find themselves in that situation.

Staff have been hugely active in finding new, creative ways of working. It has been difficult, but we have provided pupils with their full curriculum entitlement. Every lesson has been delivered; academically strong, purposeful teaching and learning has been maintained. That we have been able to do so is thanks to the heavy investments made in the development of our digital eQE platform in recent years.

Those eQE investments have generally been funded through voluntary giving, and I am deeply grateful to the many alumni who give generously to the School. Our biggest annual fundraiser is normally Founder’s Day – and I am pleased to report that, the pandemic notwithstanding, this year is no exception. We easily exceeded our £20,000 target in the first Virtual Founder’s Day in the School’s 447-year history; the current total stands at more than £22,000, including Gift Aid.

The programme, presented through the YouTube Premiere facility, was a carefully curated combination of traditional elements, adapted for a digital environment, and innovative features, such as our video curry cook-along. Robert Rinder (OE 1989–1994) made a special guest appearance. My thanks go to him and the many old boys who supported us.

Founder’s Day was also a very public reminder of the philanthropy underpinning the work of The Friends of Queen Elizabeth’s – one aspect of the uniqueness that makes QE a state school like no other. It is as a direct result of FQE’s work and of our success in a Department for Education competitive bidding process that we are in a position to go ahead with our Music School project: construction work will start during the holidays. This, again, is far from ordinary: our boldness at this juncture speaks volumes about the confidence I and the Governors have in the future of the School.

Just as we have continued to provide all boys with a full timetable of lessons, Old Elizabethans have continued to support our senior pupils by providing careers and university guidance remotely during lockdown. They included, among others, Sam Colman (OE 1998–2005), Rohan Shah (OE 2012–2019) , Kiran Modi (OE 2007–2014), Karan Dewnani (OE 2006–2013) and Binu Perera (OE 2012–2019). My heartfelt thanks go to all who have given their time so liberally.

George Mpanga (OE 2002–2009) has again been prominent on our TV screens and radios this term, and I was pleased to learn he had gained further critical recognition, too: his podcast (entitled Have you heard George’s podcast?) is the first-ever UK podcast to win a Peabody Award. Peabody Awards are one of the world’s oldest and most prestigious media awards series, so this is a considerable achievement.

I would also like to honour the many Elizabethans working for the NHS and in other key-worker roles, both here and overseas. Service has always been an important value for our School, and I know that the example of our alumni in these difficult days has inspired current boys as they think about their own futures. Indeed, some pupils have spent considerable amounts of their free time during lockdown volunteering in hospitals and in the community, or putting their engineering skills to good use by manufacturing PPE using equipment such as home 3D printers.

As Covid-19 continues to have a massive impact around the world, another important development during this period has been the global rise of the Black Lives Matter movement. I have now been here for 18 years, half of that time as Headmaster. I know how warm, respectful and kind Elizabethans are, and what a high value we place on diversity. Yet I recognise that we, in common with all organisations, do not always get everything right, and that there is more we can do.

During the term, our new, pupil-led forum, Perspective, was launched to look at issues such as racism and other forms of prejudice and discrimination. The Hughes brothers, Kelvin and Elliot, (OE 1999–2006 and 2002–2009 respectively) were invited as special guests to a Perspective discussion on Zoom for Years 11 and 12, in which I was also pleased to be able to take part. They made a very telling contribution to the discussion, bringing their own experiences and reflections from a generation above the current boys.

In this last week, Bilal Harry Khan (2003–2010) and Kam Taj (2004–2011), two alumni with whom the School has forged an ongoing relationship, have been among our very few physical visitors to the site during the term. Both came in to deliver workshops as part of a special pastoral day for our Year 12 boys, who have been spending increasing time here as lockdown eases, in line with Government policy. Bilal spoke on Tackling discrimination and prejudice and Kam Taj (2004–2011) addressed the sixth-formers on Intrinsic motivation.

Also this week, we have had Jay Shetty (OE 1999–2006), global podcaster, broadcaster and motivational speaker, as the guest speaker for our virtual Junior Awards ceremony.

While the current situation is unprecedented for all of us, I take heart from our proud heritage and from the strength of our Elizabethan community. The great contribution made by our old boys is a major element in this strength. That contribution continues to grow: QE Connect, our alumni platform, was launched at the start of the academic year and its membership has expanded steadily ever since, with more than 800 users now signed up.

QE has overcome past challenges quite as serious as Covid-19, including wars, financial crises and the plague. The dedication, generosity and loyalty of alumni, boys, parents, staff and Governors have carried us through before; they have sustained us during this lockdown, and they are enabling us now to emerge on the other side in a very strong position.

I have never been prouder of the School and would not want to be anywhere else. As we come to the end of a term unlike any other, I wish all our alumni a safe and enjoyable summer.

Neil Enright
Headmaster

Medic Neeral Patel is loving life in Toronto, where he is on a two-year mixed research and clinical fellowship – even if, at first, he wondered if making the move had been a big mistake.

“I vividly remember landing in Toronto a year ago with a very uneasy feeling in my stomach, thinking ‘what on earth have I done?’ Life in London was relatively comfortable, and I had left my family, friends and partner, Jasmin, in the UK. I was certainly excited about the opportunity, but naturally quite apprehensive at the very beginning.”

He fell back, however, on the lesson imparted on his first day at QE by his Headmaster, Dr John Marincowitz, who recited a quotation attributed to Confucius in a talk to the new boys: “Man who stand on hill with mouth open will wait long time for roast duck to drop in.”

“One of the lessons I’ve learnt along this journey, particularly related to training, is that it is necessary to force yourself to leave your comfort zone in order to progress,” says Neeral (OE 1999–2006), pictured above with his co-fellows in Toronto.

After leaving QE, he studied Medicine at Imperial College London from 2006–2012. He was vice-chair of an outreach programme called Vision, which ran conferences for secondary school pupils aimed at widening participation in Medicine. “Sometimes talented students just need a bit of advice and direction which they may not otherwise be exposed to, in order to reach their aspirations.”

As well as making life-long friends at Imperial, the highlights included his elective in Kilifi, Kenya, at the KEMRI-Wellcome Trust facility under the tutelage of Professor Kath Maitland: “She has done great work on malaria and malnutrition in the region.”

An opportunity to travel around South East Asia for five weeks with friends got off to an unfortunate start when he was put into isolation in a public Bangkok hospital for a week with H1N1 flu (during the 2009 pandemic). But after making a full recovery, Neeral re-joined his friends and visited Cambodia, Vietnam, Laos and Borneo.

His biggest inspiration at university was Professor Simon Taylor-Robinson, a hepatologist with an interest in translational research – in particular, imaging techniques to assess liver disease. “Undertaking my BSc project under his mentorship initiated my interest in medical imaging.”

After university, he moved to Birmingham for two years to undertake Academic Foundation Training, which is a dedicated programme for those who may wish to pursue a mixed clinical and academic career.

He then returned to Imperial College NHS Trust in 2014 for clinical radiology training, during which he developed his nascent interest in interventional radiology – “an exciting field in which minimally invasive techniques are utilised to treat a spectrum of diseases across a range of body systems using image guidance, whether that be fluoroscopy (x-ray), ultrasound, computed tomography or magnetic resonance imaging.”

Certain diseases for which surgery was the only previous option – with associated morbidity and mortality – can now be treated through a pinhole in the groin or wrist, using catheters and wires.

“The list of minimally invasive procedures offered by interventional radiology is endless and ever-increasing as new medical devices are innovated. Ultimately, patients are almost always able to go home the same day with no incisions, improving quality of life and reducing the risk of potential complications.”

Through his research interests in the subject, he has attended and presented at conferences in cities across the globe including Lisbon, Barcelona, Dubai and New York.

“During my time training in London I continued my interest in outreach by co-organising a careers day with the Royal College of Radiologists and Imperial College London for students interested in medicine. Those attending were exposed to hands-on activities related to diagnostic radiology, interventional radiology and clinical oncology.”

The photo shows him with Professor Nicola Strickland, past President of the Royal College of Radiologists and one of his consultants when he trained in radiology at Imperial.

Having completed diagnostic and interventional radiology training in London, the opportunity came to go to Canada. “The benefit of doing training in another country includes experiencing a completely new healthcare system and, particularly with procedural specialties, developing new skills and learning new techniques which I can then bring back to the UK in my future career as a consultant. Enjoying the new culture and all Toronto has to offer is, of course, a bonus.”

He soon overcame his initial qualms. “Having lived here for a year now, Toronto is a fantastic city, very diverse, with an excellent food scene. The national dish, poutine, is a particular favourite – how can you go wrong with chips, cheese and gravy! There are also great ski slopes very close by. The summers are glorious; however, the winters can be harsh, reaching -20C! The natural beauty of Canada is incredible, perhaps Banff and Whistler being the most well-known spots to visit, but other areas such as Newfoundland, Quebec City and Nova Scotia also have their own charm.”

Prior to the pandemic, he was able to fly back and forth at regular intervals to see friends and family. While Covid-19 has a huge impact on healthcare workers across the globe, he is complimentary about the Canadian government’s handling of the pandemic. “Although anxiety levels have been palpable within the hospitals at which I work, particularly at the height of the pandemic, we have seen incredible acts of kindness and a real coming together of the profession.”

Now that Canada is past the peak, he reflects, “the research and clinical experience I have gained here has certainly been exceptional and worthwhile.”

Neeral cherishes very fond memories of his time at QE. Among the highlights were:

• “A School trip to Russia, which was huge fun and included seeing the Moscow state circus, getting the overnight train from St Petersburg to Moscow, and attempting to order a McDonalds in Russian.”
• “Playing for the cricket First XI in the Sixth Form (without question, to make up the numbers).”
• A Nuffield Bursary summer placement at the National Institute for Medical Research in Mill Hill, where his work on a project investigating novel TB vaccines helped to foster an interest in medical research.

He attended his ten-year School reunion dinner in 2016. “It was fantastic to catch up with many old classmates, some of whom I hadn’t seen since leaving QE, and great to see the diverse career paths taken, from social media influencers, start-up entrepreneurs and music producers to leaders in the arts, law and science.”

Neeral also visited QE to give a talk to sixth-formers who wanted to pursue a career in Medicine. “I spoke specifically on my specialty of interventional radiology, which is a field many aspiring medics may not necessarily have even heard of, and so I wanted to give them a flavour of what we as clinicians can offer patients in the modern era.”

“On a brief tour, it was impressive to see how far the School has come under the leadership of Mr Enright, both in terms of academic achievements as well as new facilities, in particular the swimming pool – I remember the days of swimming in the old, damp and cold pool in the winter months, an experience I really wouldn’t want to relive in a hurry! It was also great to meet some of my teachers again, including Mr [Mev] Armon, Dr [Malcolm] Russell and Mr [David] Ryan who were, and still are, first-class educators and mentors.”

He has been pleased to see leavers in recent years take up offers at US and Canandian universities, including, most recently, Aly Sayani, who has won a place at the University of Toronto.

Neeral heartily recommends that younger Elizabethans consider Medicine: “a fantastic career with a specialty to suit all interests and personalities, with opportunities across the globe, whether it be a developed or developing country. It is a truly transferable career path, and some of my friends have even left clinical medicine completely to take up positions in healthcare technology and consultancy firms.”

In conclusion, he says Dr Marincowitz’s strictures about roast duck still resonate with him to this day: “I am grateful to QE for nurturing their students to seek and make the most of all opportunities that are presented in life.”

Architecture student Nabil Haque has enjoyed stellar academic success in his final year at Jesus College, Cambridge, winning a string of prizes and accolades.

Nabil (OE 2010–2017) graduates with the highest-possible class of degree – Double First with Distinction – and an overall score of 80 out of 100, which is the top mark recorded by the university’s Architecture department in five years.

He thus won the award for the best Architecture student of his year, having also secured several other college prizes for academic performance, including the Sir Leslie Martin Prize for Architecture.

“The grade I received this year makes me eligible for the BASS Fellowship, a fully-funded, expenses-covered two-year scholarship to Yale University, where I wish to pursue my Part II Architecture Master’s. I am currently completing my year in industry at Caruso St John Architects, winner of the RIBA Stirling Prize in 2016.”

He has been nominated by Cambridge for the: Architects’ Journal National Student Awards; Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) President’s Medal Bronze Award for Undergraduate Portfolio, and RIBA President’s Medal Dissertation Award. “The RIBA President’s Medals in particular are the most prestigious architectural awards in the world, and it has been an honour to be nominated by the university for them.”

Yet, says Nabil, his final year at Cambridge “has been by no means an easy one, with strikes for eight weeks during the first term and coronavirus relegating my final term to home-based learning”.

Nabil says QE has remained at the forefront of his mind throughout his time at Cambridge, where, he found, the School’s reputation preceded him: “It is no exaggeration to say that professors, tutors and even my peers always recognise a ‘QE boy’.”

He was involved in many areas of School life, for example, captaining the First XV and winning a place on the Royal Academy of Arts’ attRAct programme in the Sixth Form.

He pays particular tribute to Head of Art Stephen Buckeridge for the instrumental role he played in the formative stages of his education, pointing out that he was one of no fewer than three QE boys in his year on Cambridge’s extremely competitive Architecture degree course (together with Danny Martin and Tochi Onuora). It was, he said, the “freedom, confidence and individuality” that Mr Buckeridge fostered during their Sixth Form years which enabled them to navigate their design projects so successfully. “QE is the most represented school across all three years of Architecture undergraduates at Cambridge,” Nabil says.

He also maintains strong links with other QE alumni in his year at Cambridge, counting Christopher Deane, Viral Gudiwala and Tomas Viera-Short among his close friends.

“My time at Cambridge was by and large a direct extension of my time at QE. I represented the university for rugby (Second XV) and athletics, I held positions on the Jesus College Student Union (including Black and Minority Ethnic Officer), was a student representative for the Jesus College Legacies of Slavery Committee and was, in 2019, responsible for the first-ever art exhibition exclusively for BME exhibitors.

“The confidence to take up such positions, pursue my interests and further myself physically, mentally and academically all stem from the foundations I laid down at QE.”

Fitness trainer, author and podcaster Akash Vaghela has no regrets about his decision to switch his university application from Law to Sport Science.

A decade later, he is running an innovative, personalised coaching service that has helped more than 2,000 people around the world, disrupting an online industry where, he says, poor performance is rife.

Akash (OE 2003–2010), whose new book, Transform your body, transform your life, was published on 24th May, says: “I remember when I walked into my Head of Year’s office and said I’d like to switch my university application from Law to Sport Science. It certainly raised a few eyebrows, both in School and at home. I was one of the very few taking a non-traditional path, and to this day, it marks one of the best decisions I ever made.”

Across the world, 14 people now work for his business, RNT Fitness, which has as its mission ‘to use the physical to transform your life’.

While at Birmingham University, Akash was as a personal trainer (PT) and he continued working in the industry after he graduated with a first-class degree.

While he loved helping his clients, there were elements of the job he greatly disliked, he explains. “I had no control of my diary; it was dictated by the client, which due to work hours, often meant unsociable timings, meaning I’d leave my house at 5.45am and return at 10pm. There are only so many hours in the day, and I was limited by this. I saw fellow PTs around me start families and struggle. They’d never see their children due to the hours, nor have the flexibility to do so: if you don’t work you don’t get paid!

When he had almost five years’ experience under his belt, he realised the time had come to listen to his entrepreneurial spirit – “I was always dabbling in small ventures as a PT” – and start his own, 100% online, business.

There was certainly room for improvement over what others were doing: “The issues I saw in the online space were an abundance of cookie-cutter plans, lack of results, and poor customer service.”

He set up RNT Fitness along with a business partner in May 2017 to “create the go-to online platform for regular, busy people to transform their bodies and change their lives – we set out to create the best one-to-one online platform available worldwide”.

Since buying out his partner 16 months later, he has built a team to help ‘scale’ his efforts. His global group of coaches have now helped customers in more than 20 countries, working according to the company values of ‘impact, service, self-master, community and lifestyle’.

As well as assembling that team, the highlights have included:

• “Building a community tribe between coaches and clients, where we’ve regularly packed out London clubs with hundreds of fellow RNT’ers!”
• Writing his book
• Growing the podcast, RNT Fitness Radio, which has now been downloaded hundreds of thousands of times in more than 90 countries.

There were also a few lows, especially “starting the company in the red after a web development deal went sour”.

While the rollercoaster ride of entrepreneurship inevitably brings “the doubts, worries and anxiety that come with the responsibility of building a business, I don’t know if this is a low; it’s the life I love to lead – there’s a certain buzz that comes with it that you can’t replicate!”

For fellow aspiring entrepreneurs his message is: “Be mission-driven and build a business that transcends your day-to-day and your industry”. RNT, for example, is not only about physical transformation, but instead uses the physical to help people transform their lives for the the greater good. “Be prepared to work harder than you ever imagined with ruthless consistency for the opportunity to live a life by your own design,” he adds.

Last academic year, Akash came to QE to deliver a talk. The advice he gave to the Year 11 boys on that occasion has not changed: “Follow your passion and don’t be afraid to take the road less travelled: it’s harder, more rocky, but far more rewarding. I’d encourage all students to go against the grain like I did, and not conform to the normality of being a lawyer, banker or doctor!”

Akash’s fond memories of his own time at the School are rooted in the friendships he enjoyed there and continues to enjoy now. “I’ve been lucky enough to have an amazing peer group around me, many of whom I’ve known since my time at QE (even earlier in some cases!). You are who you surround yourself, and I’m lucky to call the following fellow OEs some of my best friends: Shyam Kotecha, Jai Doshi, Amar Amlani, Sindujen Sriharan, Bilal Harry Khan and Minil Patel.

“They’re all doing fantastically in their own endeavours, and continuously pushing themselves to greater heights. I couldn’t be prouder, nor could I be where I am without their support, belief and guidance. I’ll always be grateful for QE for bringing this group together.”

After starting his professional life at one of London’s élite Magic Circle legal firms, Oliver Harland has since single-mindedly forged a career that combines Law at the highest level with his passion for sport.

While he relished the occasional opportunities he had to work on sports cases during his years at Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer and even embarked on a somewhat gruelling distance-learning Master’s degree in Sports Law in his spare time to pursue his interest, it was not enough.

He had, he says, “a burning desire to be involved in professional sport – even if I finally accepted that I would never run out at Twickenham wearing the famous red rose”.

So, when the opportunity arose in 2017 to work at Northridge, a newly established firm specialising in complex sport and entertainment cases, Ollie (OE 1999-2005) jumped at the chance.

The risk has paid off. Not only has Northridge quickly become the largest sport-specific law firm in Europe and one of only two firms top-ranked for Sports Law in the most important UK legal directories (Legal 500 and Chambers & Partners), but Ollie has also thrived there and has recently been promoted to Managing Associate.

“My ambition over the next few years is to continue helping the firm to grow and to solidify its position as the firm the sports sector turns to when the stakes are highest,” he says.

He traces his love for sport back to his schooldays. “Rugby played a huge part in my upbringing. I played on Saturdays for QE and on Sundays for Saracens Amateur RFC. Many of my fondest QE memories are those from the rugby pitch, especially from my final year. Our First XV that year was not the most talented team that the School had produced – a few of us played for Hertfordshire county, but none were age-group internationals. However, we had an incredibly strong bond and played with a never-say-die attitude. That year we beat all our biggest rivals and avenged a number of painful defeats from previous years. The most satisfying was a 32-0 win against Haberdashers on their own pitch. After each game we would blast out The White Stripes’ Seven Nation Army in the changing room, long before it became an anthem in professional sports grounds across the country.

“I feel immensely proud of what the rugby squad achieved that year both on and off the pitch. Much credit goes to Mr [Tim] Bennett for getting us to invest in the philosophy that, as a whole we were much greater than the sum of our parts – which I think applies to most things in life.” [Mr Bennett is pictured giving a final speech to the First and Second XV after Ollie’s last game – a victory against Berkhamsted. The second picture, below, shows the 2004-2005 First XV].

Inter-House rugby, together with cricket, also formed some significant memories for Ollie, who was Underne House Captain. “We were always a competitive house, particularly in sport. We had some epic, and often quite heated, battles with Stapylton. I still feel robbed after one match where James Tookman’s conversion was (erroneously) ruled to have missed the posts, which cost us the inter-house rugby competition!

“I no longer play rugby, but remain a fan. It has been difficult for me to watch the unfolding of the Saracens salary-cap scandal.” (His colleagues at Northridge acted for Premier Rugby Limited in its dispute with the club.)

He arrived at QE the year before Headmaster Eamonn Harris retired. “My overriding memory of [him] was his address at my first Headmaster’s assembly. He told us that, whilst we might have passed an entrance exam to get into the School, we had not yet earned the right to call ourselves ‘QE Boys’. He made clear the standards of behaviour that were expected of us (including the length of our tie) and that to succeed at the School, and in life, we would need to be hard-working and dedicated. It was equal parts inspirational and fear-inducing; it was what I needed to be told.”

Equally, Ollie clearly remembers current Headmaster Neil Enright joining the School. “He and Miss Flook (now Mrs Anne MacDonald) were my A-level Geography teachers. It was clear early on that Mr Enright would end up as Headmaster. He was incredibly enthusiastic about the subject, and about his students challenging themselves to learn more than just the syllabus. I hope they have both forgiven me for not studying Geography at university.”

After QE, he went to the University of East Anglia (UEA) to read Law with American Legal Studies – a four-year course, of which he spent the third year as an International Visiting Scholar on the Juris Doctor programme at the Brandeis Law School, University of Louisville, Kentucky, studying US Constitutional Law and trial practice (amongst other subjects).

Characteristically, he also became a fan of US collegiate sport – “Louisville has one of the best college basketball teams in the country” – and enjoyed the opportunity to attend the famous Kentucky Derby in 2008.

In 2009-10, he completed the Legal Practitioners Course (LPC) at BPP University and then, after working at a call centre, went travelling in Central and South America.

In 2011, he started at Freshfields. “I initially thought I would become a transactional lawyer; I liked the idea of being a ‘dealmaker’, without really knowing what that would entail – ‘all-nighters’ and reading through endless contracts. I quickly found that I preferred, and had greater aptitude for, litigation and dispute resolution. I enjoy the fact that, no matter who the client or what the subject matter, every case involves a human story that needs to be told.

“The highlight of my training contract was a six-month secondment to the firm’s office in New York City. I was put up in a studio apartment a few blocks away from Central Park and my office was based on the 58th floor of the Citibank Center, with spectacular views of the Chrysler Building and downtown Manhattan. I loved everything about New York City and its work hard, play hard culture. I was there during Hurricane Sandy, which made the office building sway. My apartment was only a few blocks away from a high-rise building crane that was left twisted by the wind and dangling precariously over the sidewalk below.”

Sport again played a big part in his experience. “I went to watch the New York Knicks at Madison Square Garden and the New York Yankees at Yankee Stadium. I was also lucky enough to play ‘flag-football’ (a non-contact version of American football) and throw a touchdown pass in a charity event at the MetLife Stadium, which is home to both the New York Giants and Jets.”

In 2013, he qualified into the Financial Institutions Disputes Group (FIDG) in Freshfields’ London office. “Over the next three years I worked on a number of large and complex commercial disputes in the English High Court and two of the largest-ever regulatory investigations into the global financial services sector. These were the LIBOR and forex scandals, which centred around allegations that employees at major international banks and brokerages had colluded in the setting of inter-bank interest rates and foreign exchange rates.

“During that time, I also spent nine months on client secondment to Deutsche Bank to assist its in-house legal team respond to regulatory enquiries. I believe that client secondments are a valuable experience for any private practice solicitor, as they help to better understand a client’s business and its methods of operation.

“My time at Freshfields was excellent training. Like my time at QE, I worked with some incredibly bright and hard-working people, and the firm set very high standards. I carry those standards with me and will do so for the rest of my career.

“I worked on a couple of interesting sports matters at Freshfields, including a piece of advice on whether the FIFA World Cup could be moved from summer to winter and a review of compliance systems and control at the IAAF (now World Athletics) following allegations of corruption involving former IAAF executive officers. Those matters piqued my interest in becoming a sports lawyer on a permanent basis. Although Freshfields did some sports work, it was not a key practice area and so I began to look for practical ways to re-focus my career.”

First, in 2015, Ollie began the distance-learning Master’s (LLM) in Sports Law from De Montfort University. Continuing to work full-time, he studied during evenings and weekends.
“I recently completed the final stage, which was a 15,000-word dissertation on… match-fixing and other manipulative behaviours connected to sports betting, [looking at] whether sports’ governing bodies can effectively self-regulate against those behaviours. I hope to have some of that work published but, in short, my view is that match-fixing needs to be more widely understood as a form of financial services fraud that facilitates organised crime. It has a deep impact on society and should not be dismissed as merely a sporting issue.”

Second, in 2016, he left Freshfields and joined the sports litigation team at Charles Russell Speechlys (CRS). He had, in fact, done his work experience with CRS while at QE, spending a week working in the property litigation team. “That contact helped when making the transition from Freshfields to CRS, as I had kept in touch over the years – showing the potential value of early work experience.”

It was, he says, an exciting to join CRS, as the firm had recently won two significant instructions, namely:

• Acting as legal advisers and secretariat to the Independent Review of Integrity in Tennis, which had been commissioned after a report by the BBC and Buzzfeed News alleged ‘widespread match-fixing at the upper level of world tennis’ and accused the governing bodies of tennis of failing to take action against allegedly corrupt players. The review ultimately concluded that professional tennis had a ‘serious integrity problem’, characterised as a ‘tsunami of low-level betting and other integrity breaches’.
• Acting for the IAAF in appeal proceedings before the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) based in Lausanne, Switzerland. The appellants, including the son of the former IAAF President, were seeking to overturn the IAAF’s lifetime bans from athletics that were imposed after they were found to have run a scheme of extortion to cover up failed doping tests by Russian marathon runner Liliya Shobukhova. CAS dismissed the appeals and upheld the bans.

“These were fascinating pieces of work that vindicated my decision to re-focus my career. However, I admit that I was naïve as to how hard it would be to work and study at the same time, and the impact it would have on my personal life. The support of my family and friends during the last five years has been invaluable and, for their benefit, I would like to declare that I have absolutely no intention of studying for a PhD.”

It was during this period that he worked on the case that he regards as the highlight of his career to date. “I was contacted by a former colleague who put me in touch with a young English footballer. The player wanted to move clubs to secure regular first-team football, and his club was resisting his request to leave. With our assistance, and knowledge of The FA’s Youth Development Rules, the player was permitted to move overseas. The player was not then a household name but is now recognised as one of the brightest young prospects in English football – Jadon Sancho.”

Sancho, who now plays for Bundesliga club Borussia Dortmund, was part of the England youth team that won the 2017 FIFA U-17 World Cup and made his debut for the England senior team in 2018. “It has been incredible to watch his trajectory since joining Dortmund and to have played a small part in his story.

Ollie was not at CRS for long before the opportunity came to join Northridge, founded by four partners from CRS in October 2017. A significant number of CRS’ sports lawyers and their clients went with them. Northridge regularly acts for governing bodies, sports leagues and clubs, athletes, technology businesses, leisurewear brands and high-growth and investor-backed businesses.

“Joining a brand-new firm felt risky at the time, but with the benefit of hindsight was entirely the right decision. I enjoy being part of a smaller, close-knit, firm that has serious ambitions but also wants to operate differently from other law firms.”

As examples of these ambitions, he cites: the firm’s innovative profit-sharing pool that ensures all staff (and not just partners) are invested in the firm’s success, and Northridge TRACK, which is “effectively a club to support and connect high-growth businesses in the sports technology sectors”.

In his own work for the firm, Ollie has spent considerable time working for the British Horseracing Authority (BHA). He was part of a team that re-wrote and modernised the Rules of Racing – a project begun in late 2016 (through CRS) and completed last year that involved condensing more than 1,000 pages into just 228 pages of new rules. “I had to quickly become an expert in the regulation of a sport that I previously knew very little about, except for having the occasional flutter on the Grand National – a challenging but rewarding project.”

He was also seconded to the BHA’s Compliance and Regulatory team to help review and prosecute alleged breaches of the Rules of Racing before the authority’s independent judicial panel. This mainly involved bringing charges against jockeys, trainers and other regulated persons suspected of offences such as doping and placing bets in contravention of the rules.

“My secondment to the BHA has now come to an end, but I hope to continue working on these types of cases as solicitor-advocate for both the BHA and other clients in front of sporting regulatory panels.”

Northridge adjusted well to life in lockdown when the pandemic crisis erupted, Ollie reports. “It is fairly straightforward for solicitors to work from home, subject to having a laptop and stable internet connection.

“However, it is a challenging time for many of the firm’s clients, with professional sports suspended across the world and large numbers of people in the sector on furlough.

“From a social perspective, there is the question of when it is safe for professional sport to resume and, what impact it might have on the global recovery from COVID-19. Governing bodies, leagues and clubs risk liability if they come back too soon and/or are found not to have put in place adequate health protections for staff and spectators.”

From a sporting and commercial perspective, there are other issues, including the question of what to do about the fixtures remaining in a suspended season, about promotions and relegations, and about the season itself – as well as whether sponsors and broadcasters are owed refunds, whether prize money should be paid and about what happens to athletes and staff who are now out of contract before the season has ended. “There are no easy answers to these questions and, whatever the outcome, it is likely that at least some of sports’ stakeholders will suffer significant losses owing to lost revenue and potential future earnings.”

While he no longer plays rugby, Ollie has by no means given up participating in sport himself. Besides being a keen skier (“I first learnt to ski on the QE ski trip to Lake Tahoe, USA”), he has discovered a great passion for running.

It is, he acknowledges, a remarkable turn of events, given his debut in competitive cross-country running in a Games lesson – one of his earliest memories from QE. “I hated every second of that race and fell over face first about 50 metres from the finish, much to the amusement of the 20 or so others who had already finished. I remember crossing the finishing line – red-faced and wheezing – and my former Games teacher, Mr [Richard] Sleight, saying: ‘Don’t worry, you won’t have to do many more of those’. It makes me laugh thinking about how little each of us knew about the role that running would later play in my life, and the many hundreds of miles I would voluntarily choose to run.”

Having initially taken up running at university merely as a way to get fit for rugby, he has, over time, come to cherish it as a sport. “I enjoy the journey of self-discovery that comes with dedicated training and pushing oneself beyond self-imposed physical and mental limits. I also find running to be calming and meditative; I lace up my trainers whenever I need to clear my head or think through a difficult problem.

“A few years ago, I set myself the goal of completing the six Abbott World Marathon Majors (Tokyo, Boston, London, Berlin, Chicago, New York). So far, I have completed four of the six races, with Tokyo and Boston still to go. Both the 2020 Tokyo and Boston marathons were disrupted due to the COVID-19 pandemic. I remain hopeful that one I day will run those races but it is unlikely to happen in the near future.

“Boston is the hardest to get into as there is no public ballot, and entry is gained by running a qualifying time. For my age group (18-34), the current qualifying time is 3hrs 00mins 00secs but there is also a field limit on the number of runners each year. This means that running the qualifying time does not guarantee an accepted entry.

“At the 2019 London marathon, I finally ran a qualifying time (2hrs 59min 59sec) but missed the cut-off (2hr 58min 21sec) for accepted entry. I was initially disappointed to miss out by such a small margin but, on reflection, am proud to have achieved something that I would have never dreamed possible only a few years ago.”

Ollie currently lives in Brockley, south-east London with his girlfriend, Victoria. His mum, Sue, and stepfather, Gavin, will, he says, be familiar figures for some OEs. “Mum used to help on weekends with rugby first-aid and cricket teas (she still has a QE polo shirt to prove it). Gavin was a police officer at High Barnet police station and used to enjoy checking up on the rugby team when he was out on the beat. Mum and Gav [pictured above with Ollie and Victoria] moved to a village near Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk, shortly after I left QE. They are both happily retired and live with their two golden retrievers.”

Ollie himself remains close friends with Michael Ajayi  (OE 1998–2005) and often bumps into OEs at legal sector events.

After two life-changing years in Shanghai, Anand Dattani is back in London, with a new job, a fresh perspective on his career and his own reflections on what a post-pandemic world will mean for business.

His current professional life as a Business Development Specialist with start-up PowerPay – a company offering Chinese e-payment services to European shops so they can attract high-spending Chinese tourists – is very different from the six years he spent with Deutsche Bank.

“Having worked at a global investment bank, and for small/medium-sized start-ups, I’ve realised that for me, it is not about the company size anymore, or the ‘thrill’ of the start-up, but about finding a role where, firstly, my particular contribution is making a genuine difference to the company’s success, and secondly I can see where it is taking me in 3-5 years. (I learned from my first manager never to fixate on something beyond five years because a lot can change in that time.)”

In fact, neither his time with Deutsche Bank nor his current role bear much resemblance to the career path he originally embarked upon. Anand left QE in 2006 and was, he believes, the only leaver at that time who chose to study Optometry at university. “This was something I’d looked at doing since I was 15 and did the two-week voluntary work experience at an optician’s. But when doing the UCAS applications, I was torn between Optometry and a business-based degree, largely down to being good at, and enjoying, A-level Economics.”

In the end, although he enjoyed the course at Cardiff and made friends there, after a year, he switched to Cass Business School, where he gained a first-class degree in Investment and Financial Risk Management.

This led to a summer internship and, eventually, a graduate offer at Deutsche Bank. At this point, still not knowing exactly what he wanted to do, he, like many other graduates at Deutsche Bank, followed the well-worn path of undertaking graduate programmes in banking, accounting and consultancy.

“Only after rotating at different desks did I realise what areas and which job role suited me most: I chose the Strategy & Business Management division. My reasons at the time were that I enjoyed building relationships, especially with senior management, and wanted to become comfortable at giving professional presentations that could impact strategic decisions – plus, the numerical skills that QE’s excellent teaching gave me proved very handy in this role.

“After six or so years, I’d experienced periods of loving my role and career progression, and also periods of being stagnant and feeling this wasn’t my long-term vision. And while I could have comfortably stayed at Deutsche Bank and been part of a team that valued me, I had a strong desire to work abroad and also understand the growing start-up space. So I was going to networking events just to connect with some of the bright minds behind upcoming start-ups.

“Eventually I took a big risk and chose international exposure over job security and moved to Shanghai.”

For Anand, having to “start again”, both professionally and socially, involved frequent attendance at networking events, volunteering to help where possible, as well as joining sports teams. In fact, Anand has this advice for anyone interested in working abroad: “You have to be prepared to put in the time to proactively and independently get your name and face ‘out there’ (especially if there is any sales element involved).

“The biggest thing I noticed was how quickly I was able to build a strong network there – even my close friends would say that in six months I had got to know more people than they had in three years. One of the reasons is that in such a global city with a large expat community, people are much more open to broadening their network and making new connections.”

And it was through growing this network that I found a job at the China-based tech startups. His work while based in China’s biggest city included a post as a private wealth consultant for the deVere Group, as well as roles with blockchain platform Younus and with No NDA (nonda), a leader in app-enabled automotive accessories.

There were also a number of ‘side projects’. “One of my friends had recommended me to fill her place on a panel to judge a Dragons Den-style two-day workshop for 400 Chinese students to present their ‘air pollution improvement’ solutions. Following this, other opportunities came, including one to present on cross-cultural communication differences to 50 local teachers. While I only ever reached intermediate level in speaking Mandarin, it certainly served as a bonus. (But the power of being fluent in the language opens up a lot of doors.)”

In the end, Anand concludes, the move to the other side of the world was well worth the risk. “The experiences I have gained professionally and personally in two years were far more than I had gained in the six years at Deutsche Bank.”

Anand returned to London a few months before the pandemic was declared. “The crisis has been a great time of reflection. Working in a business development role for a payments start-up meant that the lockdown has closed out any new business. So life has become very different to if I had still been at Deutsche Bank.

“But it’s also meant I’ve been forced into this huge chunk of free time that you never expect to get once you leave university. It has allowed me to look into some of the long-list of ‘to-do’s’ that build up over the years that you never seem to be able to find time to do, including online courses on programming, fitness goals and looking into a side business that I’d thought of over two years back.

“My realisation is that it’s very easy to become dependent on the job you have – it takes up the largest part of your time, leaving you normally with evenings and weekends to pursue your non-work objectives.. during which time most are tired from working all day.

“The pandemic has greatly sped up a change that was slowly happening, where certain jobs were no longer as safe and dependable (and well paid) as they once were, and people need to be able to know what else they want to explore and achieve in case things don’t go as planned for them. It’s important that people are always working in some capacity towards their goal – and if that is already happening through their job and free time, then they are in a good place.

“My educational and career path certainly hasn’t been one straight line, which may give some of the current and former Elizabethans some comfort that it is ok to explore options, and understand what it is you really want to do and are good at along the way.”

In his spare time, Anand has completed a number of solo trips across Central and South America – “a huge eye opener and character-builder, which definitely helped me with my move to Shanghai” –and is keen to visit more countries once the pandemic has subsided, including South Africa and Australia.

As for memories of School, Geography classes with current Headmaster Neil Enright “never disappointed”, says Anand (OE 1999–2006). “I would be interested to know if he’s ever had a class like ours.* A fond memory is the day he told us ‘I have some good news for you all: instead of you having the free period shown on Wednesday afternoon (which would have meant us going home early), I’ll teach you for the extra half-hour.’ It looked like he genuinely thought the class would be pleased to hear this.”

He is still in touch with several Old Elizabethans, including his contemporaries Jamie Wolfson, Dominic St George and Fabio Castagno, as well as Jay Shetty.

*  The Headmaster replies: “Anand’s class was certainly a memorable one. It was a large group full of lively minds. Teaching them was great fun and I recall lots of laughter. They were outstanding geographers who did really well and I am not surprised that they have gone on to secure stellar careers.”

At this unprecedented time for schools and for society, our primary concern at the School is the wellbeing of all those in the Elizabethan community.

I am very conscious of the dedication and sacrifice of the many Old Elizabethans working so hard in the NHS and in other front-line professions. We are proud of the contribution they are making to the national effort.

We are doing what we can, too. Our Head of Technology, Michael Noonan, is currently using our 3D printers to manufacture face shields (a vital part of medics’ Personal Protective Equipment, or PPE) for the NHS. We have also worked with Dr Ahmer Farooqi, Director of the Barnet GP Federation (and a QE dad), to donate our supply of 228 pairs of eye protection glasses for use by local GPs in Barnet.

We are rapidly adapting to a new way of working and have instituted remote learning for all of the boys. Of course, eQE is already well established as a platform for complementary independent learning, but in the current situation it has now become our primary method for delivering education to the boys. We are challenging ourselves as a staff body to make lessons and activities as interactive and exciting as possible, and we are taking the opportunity to advance the School’s digital development, not just in terms of delivering the core curriculum, but also by thinking about what outstanding extra-curricular and pastoral provision looks like in this context. I am currently holding all staff meetings via Zoom’s video-conferencing software, for example, and we are looking at trialling this for learning activities, too. As we grapple with how we can ensure that the boys not only remain on track with their studies, but access as many opportunities to enrich themselves as possible, we are at the same time trying to maintain QE’s sense of community.

The strength of that community across the generations was evident in the numbers who contacted me to say that they wished to attend the memorial service that we had planned for Eamonn Harris. Unfortunately, the service had to be postponed because of the Covid-19 pandemic. I am pleased to say, however, that we have been able to include three profiles of School Captains from Eamonn’s time as Headmaster in this edition of Alumni News.

We have had to cancel all in-person alumni events, but I would emphasise that we want to be there for alumni, just as we are for current pupils and their families. In addition to this newsletter, we are continuing to publish content about old boys in the Alumni section of the School website. I also remind all Old Elizabethans that you can make useful connections through QE Connect, whether those are with current boys or with other OEs. At this difficult time, let us help each other.

Another cancellation arising from the current crisis has been of this summer’s public examinations. While I well understand the disappointment that many of our boys are feeling at being thus deprived of the opportunity to show their prowess, they are still to receive grades, so the transition to university should continue in a similar way to normal.

One undoubted highlight of this term was the news that 40 boys have been offered Oxbridge places. This is a new record for QE and represents a very considerable achievement, for the boys individually and for the School. Twenty-seven places are for Cambridge, the remaining 13 for Oxford.

For any school in pursuit of academic excellence, Oxbridge places constitute a useful metric. It is evidence that, as a state school and a meritocracy, QE is effectively providing pathways to world-leading universities for bright students, regardless of their social, racial or religious background.

As the speaker at our Year 12 luncheon, Sonita Alleyne OBE told our sixth-formers: “If you get the grades, you belong.” Since she is the first-ever black Master of any Oxbridge college and the first female Master at Jesus College, Cambridge, this message carries special resonance. During her visit, she also met the three final-year boys – Drew Sellis, Reza Sair and Bhiramah Rammanohar – who hold offers from Jesus College for the autumn.

Oxbridge offers should certainly be celebrated, and there has been great news for others, too, with many boys holding offers for courses such as Medicine and Dentistry, for example. There are interesting opportunities overseas, with 12 boys applying to US universities and one to Japan; one pupil has been awarded a $180,000 scholarship to study at the University of Toronto, based on academic merit – our first-ever offer from a Canadian university, as far as I am aware. Applications have been made across disciplines including Arabic, Classics, Criminology, Music, and Optometry, alongside subjects more commonly chosen by our boys.

Nottingham remains a popular choice of university here, with some 50 Elizabethan undergraduates currently studying there, not to mention post-graduate students. I was therefore pleased to welcome as our Senior Awards guest speaker, Professor Shearer West, Vice-Chancellor at Nottingham. At the ceremony, we recognised the scholarship and endeavours of boys from Years 10–12. In a new departure, we had planned a special valediction later in the year for Year 13; we hope this will still be able to take place.

Old Elizabethan help made a significant contribution to this year’s Oxbridge successes. Indeed, alumni now consistently play an important role in our senior boys achieving the best outcomes, lending their support through initiatives such as our USP (Universities Support Programme) and the inaugural Mock Interview Evening. Lectures and talks given by our alumni are also important in this regard: this term has seen Google manager Nikolai Donko (OE 2000-2007) enthusiastically championing ‘tech’ careers to the Upper School,  McKinsey Business Analyst Kiran Modi (OE 2007-2014) speaking to our aspiring economists, and Jordan Wan (OE 2004–2011) sharing with Year 9 boys insights into his work as an NHS Clinical Scientist Trainee. And when, during the winter, QE teams won two of the four main prizes (including the overall first prize) in the Institution of Civil Engineers’ #ICanEngineer competition in our first year of entry, another old boy, Karan Dewnani (OE 2006-2013) was on hand to greet them in the offices of engineering firm, Jacobs. Karan works for Jacobs as a Civil Engineer in the rail industry and, as a STEM Ambassador, was supporting the competition organisers on the day.

Very importantly, as I made clear in my speech at Senior Awards, the successes achieved by our senior boys are also the result of our emphasis on free-thinking scholarship throughout the entire School. Our focus is on the fundamental attributes that underpin scholarship, which include the nurturing of intellectual exploration beyond the bounds of the examination syllabus. We are open to expressions of scholarship which come in different guises and are inspired by different sources, such as the award-winning podcasts of George the Poet (George Mpanga, OE 2002–2009), or the work of another Old Elizabethan poet, Anthony Anaxagorou (1994–1999). We recognise that scholarship involves creativity (in the sciences as well as the arts), and that it can be emotional as well as empirical.

We are highly committed to excellence and to ensuring that it is evident in all the different facets of the School’s life. Our new Music School will be important as a venue for the creative arts and we recognise that the physical environment is a factor in the encouragement of scholarship. Alongside all the other ongoing improvement works taking place here, we are now out to tender for the build phase. We have ‘specced out’ the building, which will include a valuable social space (the atrium), and a recital hall.

While the operation of the School is inevitably disrupted at this time, as we look to the future, we are fortunate that the Elizabethan community is so strong. That strength will certainly see us through the present crisis, just as it has helped Queen Elizabeth’s School withstand other grave challenges in our 447-year history.

My very best wishes to you and your families. Thank you for your understanding and support, please stay in touch and, to repeat a widely used but nonetheless appropriate sentiment: stay safe.

Neil Enright
Headmaster

Having worked for one of the UK’s best-known companies for 18 years, Neil Trinnaman is quick to extol the advantages of staying with one employer.

A former School Captain under Eamonn Harris, he cherishes happy memories of his days at QE and highlights the impact his Headmaster had on the School and on him – including giving him a lifelong love of drinking tea!

Neil (OE 1991–1997) is a Senior Pharmacy Manager in Boots’ Digital Healthcare Programme and lives in Nottingham, where the health, beauty and pharmacy chain’s headquarters is based. He has worked for the company throughout his entire career to date.

“So why Boots for 18 years? Whilst it is popular to move companies frequently, with many believing that ‘the grass is greener’, working for a large company like Boots has given me great opportunity, with a great variation of roles, without the need to do this. I have been able to move to several different areas of the business, gaining experience of all its aspects, and along the way I have visited all corners of the UK, meeting with many great suppliers and discussing ways to partner with the NHS.

“What gets me out of bed every day and keeps me working for Boots is that whilst it is a commercial organisation, there is a real purpose beyond profit that unites the team, helping people feel better each day.”

Eamonn Harris was Neil’s Headmaster throughout his time at QE, while Mr Harris’s successor as Head, Dr John Marincowitz, was his Head of Sixth Form.

“I was part of Broughton and took part in all the activities that School had to offer, including music (trumpet – unfortunately I don’t play anymore!) and sport, where I loved athletics and playing rugby; I have enjoyed the game ever since. Two sports teachers stand out: Mr [Robert] Relton (who co-incidentally was the Headteacher two years ago for a school my sister taught at in Abu Dhabi!) and Mr [David] Maughan. They were both great teachers in their inimitable way. I always remember the warm-ups – having to do 20 press ups and sit-ups at each corner of the pitch, and if you were too slow running around the pitch, Mr Maughan often repeating: ‘What are you waiting for – a stab in the back?’. That, and of course the infamous cross-country runs and the classic elephant dip that every QE boy will remember!”

He also remembers Mr Chandler – “a great inspiration for Design, and I remember taking part in a national competition with his support, coming in the top ten in the country”. He also recalls Mr [Colin] Price, praising his “great calmness and simple way of explaining maths which I benefitted from”.

Then, he says, there was Mr Harris: “Undoubtedly a great headteacher. The one thing that really sticks in my mind was his presence around the School. He didn’t have to say a lot for pupils to know he was there and for them to behave, as he was clear about what was expected of them – impeccable behaviour and demonstrating clear and adult responsibility as being part of the School.

“One of his trademarks was in assembly each morning. With the usual buzz of everyone talking, the prefects would try to hush the crowd, usually unsuccessfully. Mr Harris would never have to come in and shout or usher silence. Instead, he would walk in and sit at the table at the front and then wait and watch. Inevitably, it never took long for silence to follow, as no one dared to continue with their conversation knowing that he was watching.

“I don’t think I have ever since seen anyone hold an audience in the way that he did. And when he did speak, he spoke with real passion about the ethics of how a school should be run, which was jointly admired by parents – certainly one of the clinching reasons for my parents choosing to send me to QE.”

A particularly strong personal memory is of the day he was invited by Eamonn Harris to be the 1996 School Captain. “I remember it for a few reasons. I was nervous, having been summoned to his office unaware of the appointment, and then of course being immensely proud when he asked me to take up the position. But I also remember that he asked me what I wanted to drink when I entered the office, the choice being ‘tea or coffee’. I didn’t drink either, but being too nervous to refuse, or to ask for anything different, I went for what I thought was the lesser of the two dislikes and had tea. From that day, I have drunk it and it has continued to be a favourite ever since! “

Following QE, Neil went to Bath University for four years, successfully obtaining a Business Management degree. He undertook two work placements during the course. One of them was for Boots in Nottingham, where he was offered a permanent role. It was also there that he met his wife-to-be, Toni. “Two good reasons to return to Nottingham!”

He spent the first part of his time with Boots within the company’s extensive supply chain, working in a number of different roles in warehouse management, category management and in “significant supply-chain change programmes.

“During the second half, I have worked within Pharmacy, from store operations, to leading the running of our hospital pharmacies, to leading our electronic prescriptions growth agenda and now, as a senior business lead for Boots, leading our digital transformation at a really exciting and pivotal time for Pharmacy. Last year the programme that I am leading won Cross Functional Team of the Year, which was a really proud moment.

“In an industry that has seen relatively small changes in the last few decades and with the NHS consistently under pressure from an ageing population, Boots are perfectly placed to shape and create a new healthcare model, particularly with digital developments. This should fundamentally mean that customers and patients will receive better care in the future, whether this is preventative or curative, in a more cost-effective and convenient way.

“Outside of work, I have lived in Nottingham since I left university and have been married to Toni, my amazing wife, for nearly 15 years and have two incredible kids, Ralf, 11, and Lois who is nearly nine. We are a tight-knit and loving family and have spent many happy years together, recently extending our house to create a lovely family home. We all love music and holidays, travelling to as many different places as possible. Our favourite has been Italy, although fortunately we haven’t booked a holiday this year, given all that is going on.

“I still love sport and this has always been a big part in my life. I played rugby and football for many years, until recently where my knee has decided enough is enough! Recently, it has largely been watching and following the kids, getting involved in their activities. However I do still like to keep fit and have continued to run (not because of the cross-country at school!) and have run two London marathons in the last few years and a number of half-marathons, as well as completing a London-to-Paris bike ride.”

Neil also manages to keep up with a group of School friends a couple of times a year: “As Alex Gilbert has suggested, this is the group named the ‘QE exiles’ and has been going for many years! It is great to catch up over a drink when I am down in London and to see the variety of jobs that everyone is doing. It’s good that we live close enough to be able to do this on a regular basis, although not as regular as I would like.”