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From Leonardo da Vinci to Stephen Hawking, this year’s entries to QE’s Science House competition covered a full gamut of top scientists across the ages.

Participants were required to research eminent and unusual scientists and produce a poster. First prize went to Year 7’s Hadi Al-Esia, from Stapylton House, who chose the brilliant, but slightly lesser-known, Nikola Tesla.

“This year we had 25 excellent entries,” said Biology teacher Melanie Haj Hussein. “The competition was open to boys in Years 7 and 8, and the standard was very high. We were very impressed with the effort they had put in. Not only had they chosen interesting scientists, but they had presented the information in creative and engaging ways.”

Hadi’s choice, the Austrian-American scientist and inventor Nikola Tesla, was born in what is modern-day Croatia in 1856, but emigrated to America in his early twenties to work at the Edison Machine Works in New York. He worked there for a brief period before striking out on his own and developing the Alternating Current (AC) induction motor and related AC patents.

Hadi’s fact-packed poster featured ‘electric’-style silver writing against a dark-blue background and also used visual effects related to the electricity theme, including a lightning flash and an image of the globe incorporated into a light bulb.

His poster and those of the runners-up, Omar Hashmi, Chanakya Seetharam, Theo Moses and Advik Balaji, all from Year 7, are being displayed in the Science Department.

Broughton successfully took on last year’s champions, Stapylton, in the grand final of QIQE to claim the crown in this year’s inter-House quiz.

The fiercely fought battle in front of the whole of Years 7–10 saw Broughton win with a total of 180 points, ahead of Stapylton’s 100, notwithstanding the presence in the Stapylton team of Year 9 boy Rahul Doshi, who was Channel 4’s Child Genius in 2017.

Both Houses had secured their places in the final after topping their respective group rounds in the earlier stages of the competition, which is modelled on the BBC’s University Challenge.

Organiser James Clarke (OE), who is an Extra-curricular Enrichment Tutor, said: “In recent years, QIQE has established itself as a key fixture within our eclectic programme of events that make up the overall House Competition.

“The final was an exciting and enjoyable event which showcased the boys’ impressive general knowledge and involved their competing under considerable time pressure and in front of a very large and enthusiastic audience of their peers. Credit must go to all the participants, and my congratulations to Broughton.”

Biology teacher Hinesh Shah (OE) acted as quiz master for the final in the Shearly Hall, which followed the familiar format of a starter-for-ten, followed by three bonus questions worth 5 points each, with 5 points lost for those who ‘buzzed’ (or, in fact, raised their paddle) before the question was finished and then got the answer wrong. The final lasted 20 minutes.

Each team comprised one boy from each of years 7, 8, 9 and 10. Boys are restricted to only competing in the quiz once, so, for example, last year’s competitors were ineligible.

While Stapylton were strong on buildings & architecture, car manufacturers, food and capital cities, the Broughton boys’ impressive knowledge of astronomy & astrophysics, television characters, authors, football grounds and film scores helped see them to victory.

The Broughton finalists were: Sultan Khokhar (Year 10); Ishaan Mehta (Year 9), Aradhya Singh (Year 8) and Kaushik Reddy Nakki Reddy (Year 7). Stapylton’s team were: Aarav Shah (Year 10); Rahul Doshi (Year 9); Madhav Menon (Year 8) and Koustuv Bhowmick (Year 7).

The full placings of QE’s six Houses were as follows:
1st – Broughton (180 points in the final; topped their group with 115 points)
2nd – Stapylton (100 points in the final; topped their group with 160 points)
3rd – Underne (115 points in group)
4th – Pearce (110 points in group)
5th – Leicester (95 points in group)
6th – Harrisons’ (50 points)

• How would you have fared? Here are six sample questions. Answers at the bottom.
  1. Puck, Bottom and Titania are all characters in which Shakespeare play?
  2. For this airport code, name the European city that you would be flying to:
  OPO
  3. How many colours are there in the spectrum when white light is separated?
  4. Which recently deceased comic book writer has had a cameo in the majority of Marvel films?
  5. The Allianz Arena football ground is home to which European club?
  6. What is the jellylike material that makes up much of a cell inside the cell membrane?

• Answers:
  1. A Midsummer Night’s Dream
  2. Porto
  3. Seven
  4. Stan Lee
  5. Bayern Munich
  6. Cytoplasm

Stapylton emerged as winners from the Year 7 House afternoon – an event designed as an enjoyable ice-breaker for the School’s youngest boys.

The reigning champion House and holder of the Eric Shearly Memorial Cup, Stapylton’s prospects for the new academic year were immediately enhanced by its new cohort’s victory.

Head of Extra-Curricular Enrichment Rebecca Grundy said, however, that the event, which came at the end of the first week of term, is primarily aimed at helping all the new boys get to know each other and learn about the key role that the House system plays in QE life.

“In order that they get to know more of their peers, we get them to work in close collaboration within their Houses on a number of competitive tasks against the clock.”

Alongside quizzes and word-searches, there was the challenge of trying to build the tallest self-supporting tower out of nothing but ordinary drinking straws and Sellotape. With only a short amount of time at their disposal, boys had to formulate a plan and execute it – finding a balance between, on the one hand, making it tall enough to be in with a chance of victory and, on the other, ensuring that it was stable enough to be free-standing and so avoid disqualification.

“It was fevered and, at times, frantic, but the boys all seemed very engaged in their attempts to win their first points for their House,” said Miss Grundy, who organised and led the afternoon. “Stapylton won both the tower challenge and the word-search, helping them to overall victory, with Underne in second place.”

Equipped only with card and drinking straws, Year 10 boys had to be constructively creative during an architecture event held as part of QE’s Enrichment Week.

For the challenge run by the Art department, House teams were asked to make an architectural structure made up of modular forms, with a theme of Folded Architecture.

Two of 2017’s Year 13 leavers, Nabil Haque and Tochi Onuora, who are both studying Architecture at Cambridge, came back to help.

Towards the end of the day, the participants were instructed to consider what purpose or building form their structure could fulfil. (They had not been told they were making buildings earlier in the day, so that their thinking would not be constrained by notions of what they considered to be normal for buildings.)

With function therefore following form, the six-strong teams decided that what they had designed could be put to use for buildings as diverse as stadia, hospitals, safari lodges and residential accommodation, to name but a few.

The pieces were judged at the end of the event. The Stapylton House team – comprising Alex Aliev, Nikhil Gulshan, Rakul Maheswaran, Jack Runchman, Aqif Choudhury, Riaz Kalim and Jude Miranda – won overall. Their contribution was praised for the way that it essentially used the same hexagonal shape repeatedly to build up the structure and create something very stable, yet still architecturally interesting.

Head of Art Stephen Buckeridge reported that the two visiting Old Elizabethans were very complimentary about the boys’ innovation, lateral thinking and openness to exploring new ways of thinking. He added that the models looked very professional, considering the time spent and rudimentary nature of the materials used. In fact, so good were the models that a small exhibition was staged to give other staff a chance to see them.

Stapylton House are the winners of the 2017/18 House Cup – reclaiming the coveted trophy from last year’s champions, Underne.

Stapylton’s victory means this House has now won the trophy – formally the Eric Shearly Memorial Cup – for three of the last four years.

The triumph was announced at the end-of-year House assembly, where the cup was presented to House Captain Oliver Than-Lu and his Deputy, Omar Taymani, both from Year 12 (pictured above).

Headmaster Neil Enright said: “My congratulations go to all Stapylton boys: this victory reflects their consistency of achievement in extra-curricular enrichment activities across the academic year, with the older boys’ efforts being boosted by a particularly strong Year 7 cohort. I trust that boys in other Houses will be inspired to redouble their efforts next year to challenge Stapylton for the crown.”

The assembly celebrated outstanding performances over a wide range of fields, including the performing arts, sport and charity work.

For this year’s House Drama competition, participants were challenged to produce original plays on the theme of a dystopian future: Leicester won the competition for the third consecutive year.

The House Music competition was won by Pearce.

In chess, the winners of various competitions were honoured, as were the boys chosen to receive junior, intermediate and senior colours.

Similarly, the assembly highlighted the names of boys who had won colours for music and sports.

There was a review of performances in sport throughout the year, including cricket, rugby, water polo, swimming and athletics. One innovation was the announcement of ‘teams of the year’ for cricket and rugby, which included leading performers from all year groups.

House charity fund-raising events during the year were celebrated, together with the work done to support the Sri Sathya Sai English Medium School in Kerala, India, with which QE has enjoyed a longstanding partnership.

Participation in The Duke of Edinburgh Award at QE remains strong: 100 boys from Year 10 enrolled for the bronze award in October and are due to complete their Qualifying Expedition in August, it was announced, while 34 Year 11 pupils signed up for the silver award and 18 Year 12 boys for the gold.

The assembly also recounted details of:

• The various challenges run on a specially arranged House Afternoon
• The QIQE quiz, which was by Stapylton
• A number of House competitions run by the academic departments: these included, for example, a Languages competition to design a poster about a famous and influential linguist, which was won by Year 8 Stapylton pupil Jashwanth Parimi, and a photography competition for Years 7–9 run by the Geography department.

With nearly 100 separate events across disciplines ranging from tug-of-war and Eton Fives to table-tennis and volleyball, QE’s 2018 Sports Day once again saw hundreds of pupils competing for their Houses.

Harrisons’ emerged as the winning House, retaining its 2017 title, with Second Master Colin Price duly presenting the coveted trophy. The 668 points amassed by Harrisons’ placed it ahead of Leicester, on 622: the other four Houses were quite closely matched, led by Stapylton, which scored 576.

The whole day was supported by large numbers of staff, led this year by PE & Games teacher James Clarke (Head of Rugby).

The day concluded, as is traditional, with the staff participating in the QE Mile – a 16 x 100m relay. The staff team comfortably beat the Sixth-Form team into second place, with notable contributions including a swansong appearance from Mathematics teacher Gregory Lee (he is leaving this summer), who this year once again performed his leg in a suit.

Headmaster Neil Enright: “I congratulate all the boys who achieved success for themselves and their Houses and I thank Mr Clarke and all colleagues involved for their hard work throughout the day.”

One notable quirk of this year’s Sports Day was the unusual attire of some competitors – not only Mr Lee, but also competitors running in their socks: one boy lost a shoe early in his 1500m race and even ran back to retrieve it, before eventually discarding it and then working his way up through the field to achieve a creditable finish!

The day included 53 track events of varying length, from the 75m hurdles for Year 8 through to the 1500m individual races and the 4 x 400m relay open to all year groups.

Also continuing through the day were the field events, which included discus, shot put, javelin, long jump, high jump and triple jump.

Years 7–10 each had their own tournaments for tug-of-war, tennis, Eton Fives and table-tennis (the latter taking place in the gym).

There were competitions for Years 9 & 10 in volleyball. The rowers battled it out in ten-minute sessions, with one machine allocated to each of QE’s six Houses.

Stapylton emerged as winners after taking on Pearce in front of the whole Lower School in the inter-House QIQE competition.

The six Houses first competed against each other in two leagues during a pool stage, with the rules stating that the two teams achieving the highest score in any of their pool matchings would progress to the final (rather than the teams with the greatest number of wins).

Until the last rounds of this stage, it looked as though this would be Leicester and Harrisons’, but then Stapylton, maintaining an unbeaten run, stormed through with a huge total of 175 over Leicester. Pearce had lost their opening quiz to Harrisons’, but when they took on Underne, they garnered 150 points to secure the other finalist’s spot.

In the final, which had a time limit of 15 minutes, all of Years 7 to 10 watched as Stapylton and Pearce fought it out, answering questions on topics from anatomy and famous inventors to food and film music. Stapylton pulled clear to achieve a 115-90 victory over Pearce.

Extra-curricular Enrichment tutor James Clarke said: “Special mentions should definitely go to Anshul Sajip, of Year 10, who performed admirably for Harrisons’, Year 7 boy Vignesh Rajiv, who took Pearce to the final with his knowledge of ancient Greece, scoring 25 points late on his own, and Year 10 Aaryan Sheth, for his outstanding performance in the final for Stapylton.”

Although named with a nod to TV’s popular QI programme, the format of the inter-House quiz was similar to another TV favourite, the BBC’s University Challenge. It involved ‘starters for ten’ put to the fastest team ‘on the buzzer’ (actually, holding up a paddle). If answered correctly, this then led to three thematically-linked bonuses, each worth five points.  Conferring with teammates was allowed for the bonuses, but not for the starters. Each team comprised one boy from each of Years 7–10. The quizmasters were Mathematics teacher Greg Lee and English teacher Alex Ulyet.

The winning Stapylton Team comprised: Rohit Balkrishna, Year 7; Arjun Arunkumar, Year 8; Swattik Das, Year 9, and Aaryan Sheth, Year 10.

The runners-up, Pearce, were: Vignesh Rajiv, Year 7; Olly Salter, Year 8; Sheikh Mohiddin, Year 9, and Deshraam Ganeshamoorthy, Year 10.

The overall standings in the competition are as follows (with the Houses’ highest scores from the pool stage given in brackets):

1st – Stapylton (175); 2nd – Pearce (150); 3rd – Leicester (130); 4th – Harrisons’ (100); 5th – Broughton (100) and 6th – Underne (70).

Pearce emerged triumphant as the first winners of the newly revived inter-House Music competition when their version of the hit song from the 1980s film classic, Dirty Dancing, found favour with the judges.

Run for the first time in five years, the reformatted contest featured specially formed ensembles drawing boys from across all year groups.

Each House’s ensemble had to choose a piece based on the theme of the Oscars and then arrange and rehearse it. The competition culminated with a performance of all the pieces to the whole Lower School (Years 7-10) at a special assembly in the Shearly Hall.

Congratulating all the ensembles, Headmaster Neil Enright said: “The boys faced a tricky task: they had first to take into account the particular talents within their House when selecting their piece; then they had to arrange the music themselves, and finally, they faced the challenge of performing together in front of their peers.

“This competition constituted a great opportunity for boys of differing ages to work together and foster that shared sense of House identity. It is an experience that will no doubt stand them in good stead for other Music competitions in the future.”

The judging panel comprised QE music teachers Tom Jack and Jen Brown, as well as St Albans High School for Girls’ Director of Music, Miss Emma Price, who led the panel and delivered both the feedback and results.

Pearce won the day with their rendition of (I’ve had) The Time of My Life. The judges felt the boys performed well in all areas, but specifically highlighted the strong sense of rhythm and timing providing by Pearce’s drummer, and the timing and quality of their saxophone solos.

Runners-up Harrisons’, who played Jai Ho from Slumdog Millionaire, drew plaudits in particular for their use of Indian drummers for a call-and-response segment, as well as for their generally strong performance.

Overall, Miss Price commended the boys on some very good playing, whilst proffering useful practical advice to consider for future competitions.

Year 13 pupil Abbas Adejonwo, who was part of the Harrisons’ team, remembers the old Music competition, in which boys performed pieces individually. He recalls finding the experience somewhat daunting as a Year 8 boy, and he welcomed the different arrangements adopted for the revived competition: “It was an exhilarating experience competing in this new format. It really instilled a sense of teamwork – and I am very proud of my House.”

The Music competition complements the broad range of inter-House competitions now running through the year, with points won at this event added to the overall House Competition totals.

In order of appearance, the performances were as follows, with the competition positions in brackets:

• • Leicester – Can you feel the love tonight? from The Lion King (third)

• • Broughton – I dreamed a dream from Les Misérables (fifth)

• • Stapylton – Moon River from Breakfast at Tiffany’s (sixth)

• • Underne – Themes from Gladiator (fourth)

• • Pearce – (I’ve had) The Time of My Life from Dirty Dancing (first)

• • Harrisons’ – Jai Ho from Slumdog Millionaire (second)

Hundreds of boys from the first four years of the School took part in QE’s 2017 Sports Day, with Harrisons’ House emerging as the overall winners after hours of hard-fought competition.

Almost all pupils in Years 7-10 participated in the day, which featured 53 separate track races, as well as many field events, and competitions in sports as diverse as Eton Fives, rowing, tug of war, volleyball, tennis and table tennis. When the scores were all tallied up, Harrisons’ had beaten Stapylton into second place.

Headmaster Neil Enright said: “It was a very good, action-packed day, with pupils engaging well and relishing the excitement of competition. The weather held out for us, despite predictions of rain storms, although at one point the wind almost made the scorer’s gazebo take off, in apparent imitation of the high jump competition taking place adjacent to it!”

Almost 30 staff undertook tasks including scoring, timekeeping and starting races, while Year 12 pupils helped out and also competed in some of the relays. Assistant Head of PE & Games Rhys Davies-Horne provided a tireless stream of commentary, with events starting at 10.30am and many extending into the afternoon.

Sports Day was rounded off in traditional style with the running of the QE Mile – a 16 x 100m relay, which saw the six Houses compete against Sixth Form and staff teams and against an additional mixed team comprising both sixth-formers and staff members. The race was won by this joint staff-Sixth Form team, with the staff team second, the Sixth Form third and with Broughton taking the honours as the best of the Houses in fourth place.

Among the athletes competing were Year 9 boys Jeff Hagan (triple jump) and Nicholas Shaw (100m). Both also competed earlier this month at the English Schools’ Athletics Championships national finals in Birmingham, where Jeff came 4th out of 16 in the Junior Boys competition with a distance of 12.56m and Nicholas ran a new personal best of 11.45 seconds, although he did not progress to the final. QE Director of Sport Jonathan Hart congratulated the pair on their impressive achievement in reaching the finals and commended Jeff on his impressive position in his event and Nicholas on his PB.

Leicester House won the end-of-year drama competition with a compelling tale of below-stairs intrigue and the murder of an abusive master – all told in less than 10 minutes.

Each of QE’s six Houses created and performed a short piece entitled A London Mystery, which they had to base on a short extract of the play, Sherlock Holmes, written by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and William Gillette.

The performers were from Years 7-9, with the directors mainly from Year 10. They performed to the rest of Year 7 and a panel of staff judges.

Drama Co-ordinator Elaine White said: “I was delighted with the amount of effort and creativity that went into these performances. The boys had very limited adult input and had to learn a great deal about how to turn an idea into an end-product.

“They came up with a broad range of plots, characters and c oncepts, from the disappearance of families from High Barnet station through to the theft of the Crown Jewels on the eve of the Coronation.

“The judges unanimously adjudged Leicester House to be the winners for a particularly praiseworthy performance of their murder mystery. The staging was simple, the dialogue clear and the acting strong: Leicester delivered a piece which gripped audience and judges alike.”

Leicester’s plot saw two servants becoming the prime suspects in the murder of their master. Two police inspectors ‘explained’ what had happened, giving motive, means and opportunity – yet each came up with a different version of events although based on the same evidence. The suspense was maintained until the end, when the denouement revealed that the cook was the culprit.

Stapylton were the runners-up, with Underne in third place.

All the Houses had begun with a single-page stimulus document. This started with some brief tips – “Don’t include too many storylines or characters” – and simple instructions, including the 10-minute time limit. Further requirements were that the finished piece must: tell a well-defined story; include one piece of music, and feature one ‘freeze-frame’ moment.

The document featured brief stage directions from the 1899 Sherlock Holmes play, including the setting, “the drawing-room at Edelweiss Lodge, an old house, gloomy and decayed, situated in a l onely district in a little-frequented part of London”.

Boys had to include the following lines of the play’s dialogue at some point in their piece:

‘Pardon, Sir, but one of the servants wishes to speak with you.’
‘I can’t spare the time now.’
‘A nice cup of tea.’

The Leicester House directors were Year 10 pupils Mahdin Choudhury, Maanav Patel and Ryan Ratnam. The actors were Aadarsh Khimasia, of Year 8, Arjun Nirmal (Year 7), Ayush Patel (Year 8), Shivas Patel (Year 8), Yuvann Sayandan (Year 9) and Ethan Solanki (Year 8).

The technical directors for all Houses’ performances were Thomas Mgbor and Hugh Westcott, both of Year 9.