Viewing archives for School performance

Teacher and Old Elizabethan James Clarke won QE’s first-ever Leader Award from the Jack Petchey Achievement Award Scheme, having been nominated by his pupils.

Mr Clarke (OE 1999–2004), who leaves QE this summer after a dozen years in the PE department, was presented with his award alongside nine student winners drawn from Years 10–12.

QE’s ten recipients received their awards just a few weeks after the death of businessman and philanthropist Sir Jack Petchey at the age of 98. The award scheme that bears his name recognises outstanding young people aged 11-25 across London and Essex.

Headmaster Neil Enright said: “Many congratulations to James. His passion for rugby is well-known, but the award also rightly recognises his commitment to helping students reach their full potential, both academically and in their extra-curricular activities. He takes with him our best wishes as he moves to a new position with Bermudan rugby.

“I also congratulate the nine pupils who have won awards for their contributions to School life, which covered a wide range of endeavour, from music to mentoring.”

Mr Clarke is pictured, top, receiving his award from the Deputy Mayor of the Barnet, Councillor Danny Rich, and then at Sports Day, where he anchored the staff team to victory in the day’s traditional finale, a 16 x 100m relay known as the QE Mile. He received the Leader award for his dedication to coaching and mentoring, recognising that this has gone beyond the rugby field.

Pupils winning awards were:

• Harrison Lee, Shrey Tater​, Chanul Athukoralage​ and Shreyas Mone​ in Year 12
• Karan Somani​, Sejal Bobba​ and Muhammad Ammaar Hurzuk​ in Year 11
• Noah Morley​ and Ahsan Rahman in Year 10.

Harrison Lee has led junior strings and various music ensembles, dedicating himself to enhancing their performances. He also consistently plays in School concerts, thus showcasing his passion for Music.

Shrey Tater is also involved with Music, with his contributions to the Senior Choir being recognised, along with his commitment to helping with extra-curricular activities, particularly with the younger years.

Shreyas Mone’s award reflected his role as an ambassador for the International Astronomy and Astrophysics Competition (IAAC). ​The citation added: “He is also known for his exceptional and captivating Physics blog, where he shares fascinating insights, making complex concepts easily understandable.”

Sejal Bobba is a candidate for the Barnet Youth Parliament, known for his role as a positive influence and role model for younger generations. He is actively involved in the School’s debating society and was also recognised for his friendly personality, always being willing to engage in conversations with anyone needing help.​

For the two youngest award-winners, Ahsan Rahman was reported to shine as a peer mentor, providing valuable support to new Year 7 boys dealing with examination stress and sharing strategies to avoid low grades. A committed sportsman and strong coach, he leads by example, on and off the field. ​

And Noah Morley is another exceptional musician, participating in six Music clubs per week and in numerous concerts. In addition to engaging in sports, he also contributes to the School community by assisting with House assemblies.​

Lord Simon Woolley, Principal of Homerton College, Cambridge, challenged this year’s leavers to make the world a better place when he came to QE as guest speaker for Valediction.

All of Year 13 gathered in the Shearly Hall with their parents for the ceremony – a last chance to celebrate the contribution of the Class of 2024 to Queen Elizabeth’s School and to mark the start of their new status as Old Elizabethans.

As well as presentations to all leavers and music played by the School’s senior musicians, the afternoon included a prizegiving for those who had excelled in their studies and extra-curricular activities.

Headmaster Neil Enright said: “This was a super afternoon, with a great atmosphere. Lord Woolley was a brilliant and charismatic guest speaker. Amusing and inspiring in his address, he then happily spent time at the afternoon tea reception speaking to the students and their families.

“Everyone seemed to enjoy themselves, even if, after all the miserable weather we’ve had this year, it was possibly just a little too hot and sunny for some!”

In his address, the Headmaster told the leavers: “You sit here holding the most spectacular array of university offers of any Elizabethan cohort to date. Collectively, you’ve received offers from 46 UK institutions across 187 individual courses, including from 22 of the 24 Russell Group unis. We know that this year has seen a record 62 Oxbridge offers and, perhaps even more staggeringly, 55% of you hold offers from a World Top 5 university.”

Not only did many of them, now 18, have their first opportunity to vote in the forthcoming General Election, but many more opportunities were now available to them in life more generally.

“You are always welcome at Queen Elizabeth’s and can be part of our community for as long as you like. There is a growing network, online and in person, from which you can hopefully benefit. Do keep in touch,” the Headmaster concluded.

Year 13’s Darren Lee, who was School Captain in 2023, delivered an entertaining speech: “Though some of us may look different, with growth spurts and beards, we are the same 192 who sat the entrance test and joined in Year 7….. We did it and we did it together.”

He acknowledged the facilities and extra-curricular opportunities the School provides, as well as the care of the teachers, while noting that some of the best ‘lessons’ came from spending time with each other: the experience is as much about the moments around and between lessons, as what happens within them, he said. He implored his peers to keep in touch.

The guest speaker, who is Baron Woolley of Woodford, became Principal of Homerton in October 2021 ­– the third Black person to be elected head of a college at Cambridge or Oxford. He sits as a cross-bencher in the House of Lords. He has a focus on building consensus across political and community lines, and is passionate about educational access and supporting those with potential who are marginalised.

Lord Woolley began by celebrating the role of parents and families, asking them to stand up to be applauded by the boys. Having an 18-year-old son of his own, he identified with them, saying he knows it is not always easy, but is absolutely worth it. He celebrated the staff of the School, reminding the leavers that they turn up each day “to educate you, but also to make you shine”. They genuinely care and want you to succeed, he said.

He also called back up some individual students who had caught his attention: Darren Lee (“Our future Prime Minister!”) for his leadership and eloquent speech; Isher Jagdev (Latin prize winner) to help him with the Latin that he will need on Saturday when he conducts the graduation ceremony for Homerton undergraduates at the Senate House in Cambridge; and Nathan Woodcock (“Mr 100%”) whose perfect attendance had been noted. “To achieve change you have to be present; you have to turn up. He’s someone I’d want on my team.”

He spoke a little about his journey from a tough council estate in Leicester, where you had to learn to fight and where “the reason to go to school was to see your mates”. No one went to university from his school, but, he told the leavers: “You are going to the best universities on the planet.” Coming to Queen Elizabeth’s School was like being among the winning children in Roald Dahl’s Charlie and the Chocolate Factory: “You’ve had the golden ticket. Not everyone gets that chance, so the question is: what are you going to do with it?

“Be the people to stand up to inequality, to help people out of poverty, to find the cure, or build something better. The Headmaster and I are not asking you to be brilliant, to share your abilities, to make an impact on the world… we are demanding it. Not everyone can be the principal or the CEO, but every one of you can do something that makes a difference.”

The music during the afternoon included a remix composed by Indrajit Datta, as well as a medley of popular hits that had formed the soundtrack to their school years, played by Indrajit’s Year 13 peers.

Music during the afternoon tea outside following the ceremony was played by the Year 8 and 9 Music Colours winners.

• Click on the thumbnails below to view the images.

QE parents and staff have reduced the number of low-occupancy car journeys on the school run after signing up in numbers for a new app aimed at reducing local traffic and cutting CO₂ emissions.

It is only six months since the School partnered with HomeRun and launched its app with parents and staff, but already the single-family car usage rate has been cut by 9%, thanks mainly to a 22% increase in journeys shared.

HomeRun’s impact report states that QE families have thus saved some 10 tonnes of CO₂ and 22,633 school run miles – equivalent to 481 mature trees or 0.9 trips around the equator.

The high level of participation – the families of 526 pupils have signed up – has unlocked a £1,000 grant to the School from HomeRun. The money is being invested into QE’s Greenpower team, which builds electric racing cars.

Headmaster Neil Enright said: “My thanks go to all parents and colleagues who have signed up: this is a real environmental success and a great start to our involvement with HomeRun. As a School, we seek to be good neighbours, and these figures are a ‘win’ both for us and for residents on nearby streets, where there is a reduction in both pollution and vehicle movements.

“Many of our boys already travel to QE on School coaches or on public transport, which we encourage. This app helps people with logistics and can result in reduced fuel costs for car-users, as well, of course, as improving the environment more generally.”

“I know that there is much enthusiasm about the scheme among the families of our new Year 7 intake joining us in September, so there is scope to make even greater savings in the future. I hope that even more parents from other year groups will get involved.”

The scheme seeks to promote more sustainable travel methods, in particular by helping people car-share where they feel that using public transport is not a viable option.

HomeRun collects anonymised data on school run journeys, showing how far pupils travel, what type of transport they use, and how much carbon the journey emits. The app then promotes alternatives to low-occupancy car usage for the school run such as:

• Journey-sharing
• Travel buddies
• Cycling initiatives
• Park & stride (where families living far from a school are asked to park a ten-minute walk away and then complete their journey on foot, bringing health benefits as well as reducing emissions and local congestion).

Finally, the HomeRun app creates a secure, dedicated space for people to share travel information. Those who opt in can connect with other families in their locality, since the app shows people how far away other users live, without revealing their actual address. It allows the School to update parents when boys will be ready to leave Queen’s Road outside the normal School day – after clubs and activities, for example, or when returning from a School trip.

Mr Enright welcomed the grant, which has gone to QE’s Greenpower racing team: “It is an exciting initiative, which is developing skills in the STEM subjects (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) as well as nurturing enthusiasm for sustainable technologies among our boys.”

• The photo of the boys in a car was taken during a trip last term to the Warner Bros studios in Leavesden, when they tried for size the Ford Anglia made to fly by Arthur Weasley in one of the Harry Potter books.

Olympian Derek Redmond offered both congratulations and some sage advice born of his own hard-won experience to prize-winners at 2024’s Senior Awards ceremony.

Mr Redmond enjoyed a successful international career as a sprinter before it was cut short by injury. He drew on the lessons he learned from this huge disappointment to explain to the boys how they can overcome the setbacks that will inevitably come their way and then go on to further success in the future.

He was Guest of Honour at the ceremony – a highlight of QE’s calendar – speaking to the assembled boys, their families, staff and VIPs including the Deputy Mayor of Barnet, Councillor Tony Vourou, in the School Hall.

Headmaster Neil Enright said: “This year’s Senior Awards was very successful, with a great atmosphere: it was the first time we have had a professional sportsman as our guest speaker, and Derek’s speech was pitched perfectly for the occasion. It was very well received, with large numbers eager to speak with him at the post-reception ceremony.”

In his own speech, Mr Enright drew parallels between the prize-winners’ achievements and those of élite sportsmen. He pointed both to the personal attributes that the boys had demonstrated to achieve such success, but also to the way in which QE itself contributed: “We achieve at a very high standard here. We are unashamedly personally ambitious for our performance and our future development. But we do so together, in unison and cooperation. We all realise, I hope, that our individual performances are enhanced by working together in partnership.”

Senior Awards saw well over 100 prizes awarded to boys from Years 10, 11 and 12. They ranged from awards for individual subjects to those for ‘contribution & responsibility’ and for excelling in extra-curricular activities including chess, music and the Combined Cadet Force.

The evening was punctuated by musical interludes performed by some of the music prize-winners. The music played included pieces by Handel, Schubert and contemporary British composer, Ian Clarke.

In Mr Redmond’s speech, he congratulated the award-winners on all the work that they had put in unseen to earn the “15 seconds of fame” they enjoyed as they came up to receive their prizes.

But he signposted that he also wished to give them a reality check – that they have now set a standard for themselves that everyone will be expecting them to reach all the time.

Using his own personal story, he explained that there will be setbacks, but that his definition of success is “getting up one more time than you’ve been knocked down”. To do so you need determination and self-belief.

He recounted how, having ‘popped’ his hamstring in the Barcelona Olympics semi-final in 1992, he spent the next 18 months going through recurrent treatments and operations, only for it to happen again as soon as he was back in training each time. This led his surgeon (who by this point had very little left to work with) to declare that the hamstring was ‘shot’, that his athletics career was over, and that he would never compete for his country again.

It was this last part that riled him and motivated him, as he took it as an indictment that he would never be good enough.

However, he went on to play for England (briefly) in basketball and played professional rugby, just missing out on selection for the national Rugby Sevens team. He has subsequently successfully raced endurance motorbikes, won a national kickboxing title, and is still boxing (ahead of turning 60 next year).

He has found new challenges to motivate him in which he can achieve. He does not claim to be the most naturally talented in these other sports, but has put in the work. This applies to whatever field the boys want to pursue, he told them.

Queen Elizabeth’s School has set a new all-time record for the number of places offered by Oxford and Cambridge universities, with the 2024 figure of 62 offers easily surpassing the previous school record of 47, set only last year.

There were record numbers of offers from both universities – 46 from Cambridge and 16 from Oxford – with just over one in three boys in Year 13 receiving an Oxbridge offer.

The offers cover a wide range of disciplines – from Law and Medicine to History and Asian & Middle Eastern Studies – and come from 33 colleges.

Headmaster Neil Enright said: “This is brilliant news! It’s a huge jump up from last year’s figure of 47, which itself comfortably exceeded our previous record of 40.

“These offers are testament to the academic accomplishment and sustained application of these students, both in public examinations and in their university admissions tests.

“They also demonstrate that these candidates were able to a make a convincing case at interview, where they were invariably up against very stiff competition. I would like to take this opportunity to thank the many Old Elizabethans and other friends of the School who conducted mock interviews with our boys in the autumn.

“This record is a very auspicious start to our new QE Futures programme, which seeks to further refine and enhance university admissions support and preparation, building on much excellent work embedded here over recent years.”

The highest number of offers came from the following colleges:

• Queens’, Cambridge – five
• St Catharine’s, Cambridge – five
• Trinity, Cambridge – four

There were: 18 offers for Medicine: eight for Economics, or Economics and Management; eight for Engineering; seven for Mathematics, as well as smaller numbers for other subjects, including famous courses such as Cambridge’s Natural Sciences and Oxford’s PPE (Philosophy, Politics and Economics).

Digging down into the statistics reveals a steady improvement in QE’s offer-to-application and offer-to-interview ratios over the past five years. This year, 90% of Oxford and Cambridge applicants were called for interview and 49% of applicants offered a place.

Assistant Head (Pupil Destinations) James Kane, who heads QE Futures, said: “To have reached a point this year where very nearly half our Oxford and Cambridge applicants have received an offer demonstrates how strong those ratios have become.

“We are confident that these students will make a positive impact on the life of their respective colleges and universities. Of course, receiving an offer is not the end of the process: the hard work continues as these boys strive to meet the conditions of their offers.

“There has been an encouraging picture more broadly, with other students securing a range of offers from other leading institutions: 344 offers so far across 119 courses at 32 different universities.

“As ever, we are mindful that there are some strong and credible candidates disappointed at not receiving the offers for which they had hoped.”

Queen Elizabeth’s School has further cemented its reputation for achieving the very highest levels of academic performance, taking second place in the annual Sunday Times Parent Power league table.

QE has now taken first or second place in the survey every year for well over a decade. The table is based on A-level and GCSE results.

The survey is separate from the Sunday Times Schools Guide’s State Secondary School of the Year title, which is judged using broader criteria. QE won that in 2001, 2007 and 2022.

Headmaster Neil Enright said: “We have consistently been in one of the top two spots in the Parent Power table for so long that the remarkable is for us now unremarkable!

“Nevertheless, this is still by any measure a considerable achievement, for which my congratulations go to all my colleagues and to our families.

“In fact, this success is yet another accolade to add to our list of memorable highlights in this, our 450^th anniversary year. Those highlights include new academic records, such as the 47 Oxbridge places offered to our boys and 58.2 per cent of A-levels taken here in 2023 being offered A*.

“There was also: our royal visit from HRH The Duke of Gloucester; our thanksgiving service in Westminster Abbey, attended by the whole School; and a very special Founder’s Day.

“Moreover, the year has been punctuated by splendid concerts, sporting triumphs, impressive drama productions and competition successes – all attesting that the QE experience extends well beyond examination results.”

In the article accompanying the survey, Times journalists Sian Griffiths and Helen Davies stated: “This is the first time that performance in this summer’s A-levels and GCSEs has returned to pre-pandemic grade boundaries in England and many of the schools that triumphed this year were also those that managed to keep high-quality teaching going online during the pandemic.”

They noted, firstly, that single-sex schools once again lead the table, and, secondly, that London dominates in terms of educational excellence, with 40 schools out of Parent Power’s top 100 being located in the capital.

Mr Enright added: “My congratulations go to the first-placed school in the Parent Power table, Wilson’s School in Wallington, Sutton, who have enjoyed their own remarkable year.”