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Two Sixth Form pupils secured well over £11,000 when they organised their first-ever major charity event – easily beating their £5,000 target.

Year 13’s Parth Gosalia and Year 12 boy Rishi Shah put together a grand dinner, including entertainment, because both have roles as Youth Teachers at the Shri Chandana Vidyapeeth Jain School in Edgware and they were keen to demonstrate young people making a positive difference in society.

The dinner, which took place at the Shishukunj Community Centre in Edgware, was held in aid of two charities: Debra, which supports people suffering from a skin condition called Epidermolysis Bullosa (EB), and Veerayathan Nepal, which is raising money for children orphaned by the large Nepal earthquake of 2015.

Some 120 people attended the event, including committee members from the Jain School, charity representatives and local business people. Parth and Rishi worked with a third Youth Teacher, Shyam Shah, who is not a QE pupil.

The final total – not including Gift Aid – came to £11,434, which was amassed through sales, a raffle and pledges. The entertainment at the dinner included a guitarist and a magician.

Parth, who has an offer to read Philosophy, Politics and Economics (PPE) at Christ Church, Oxford, and was a QE Vice-Captain last year, compered the event. “It was daunting at first and I was nervous to begin with, but in the end I really enjoyed the night,” he said.

“Organising the evening was a good experience for us as youth leaders: we got ‘tighter’ and learned much more about each other through the process. It was eye-opening and very rewarding.”

Rishi, who is a current Vice-Captain, delivered a 25-minute presentation on the charities’ work.

Two years ago, he visited a school run by Veerayathan, which is an Indian NGO operating internationally. The dinner was, however, raising money specifically towards its work in Nepal, where the organisation is building a centre close to Kathmandu to house and educate children orphaned in the earthquake. It will also offer adult education courses.

Jenny Jackson, Debra UK’s Business Development Manager, and Christo Kapourani, a sufferer from EB, both spoke at the dinner, and Mr Kapourani also announced the final total towards the end of the evening.

Rishi said: “I feel personally connected to these charities, therefore it was easy to present with passion. That, allied with the presentations from the Debra representatives, had a high emotional impact, which undoubtedly inspired the guests to be generous with their pledges.”

Rishi hopes to go to Nepal this summer to work as a volunteer and to present the money raised.

Another QE boy, Aaryan Sheth, of Year 11, also assisted on the day.

The international migrant crisis in southern Europe may have faded from the headlines in recent months, but the humanitarian challenge remains, Old Elizabethan Nicholas Millet reminded QE boys when he returned to his alma mater.

Nick (OE 2001–2008) co-founded Refugee Education Chios, which provides education, support and training for teenagers and young adults living on the Greek island of Chios, which became a de facto detention centre after the 2016 EU-Turkey agreement.

The project offers safe places – a youth centre and a learning centre – outside the Vial detention camp, reaching up to 250 children and youth aged up to 22 each week. Both centres tailor their work to the refugees’ particular needs, with, for example, the learning centre offering a trauma-sensitive curriculum and the youth centre helping teenagers develop trusting relationships and confidence in their own abilities and skills.

He spoke to boys in the middle years of QE about the charity’s work and about the migrant crisis in general, highlighting the ongoing nature of the problem, which, he said, was all too easily forgotten.

Thanking him for his visit, Head of Academic Enrichment Nisha Mayer said afterwards: “Nick provided an enormously insightful and, at times, emotional talk, which was a good reminder of the importance of being involved with humanitarian causes.”

Nick first got involved in the refugee relief work before the 2016 agreement came into force. Inspired to take action to help refugees by a weekend visit to the ‘Jungle’ camp at Calais, he put his successful career as a management consultant on hold and flew to Chios, which lies just 7km off the mainland of Turkey.

The island was the arrival point for the highest number of refugees after Lesbos, with up to 1,500 men, women and children making the journey across the Aegean Sea every night at that time. During his talk, Nick showed the boys photographs of refugees arriving on Chios, often in perilously overloaded rubber dinghies. Other images revealed the poor conditions in the camp.

Nick, of Stanmore, has a history of involvement in humanitarian projects. Shortly after leaving QE, he spent time at the Sri Sathya Sai School – a village school in Kerala, India, which QE has supported since 2002. And, while he was reading for the Politics, Psychology and Sociology Tripos at Cambridge, he undertook research for the Grameen Bank, the Nobel Prize-winning microfinance organisation based in Bangladesh which works to help the poor.

On his most recent visit to QE, Nick mentioned especially the desperate plight of lone child refugees, telling the boys: “Children are sent because their parents can’t afford for the whole family to escape.”

New School Captain Bhiramah Rammanohar and his team take up their positions today at the start of the new term.

Together with his Senior Vice-Captains Fozy Ahmed and Oscar Smith, he heads a 120-strong group of School officials for 2019, who are all drawn from Year 12.

Headmaster Neil Enright said: “I congratulate all the prefects upon their well-deserved appointments. They come from a much-liked and well-respected year-group within the School.”

“Bhiramah is a worthy recipient of this honour, as is made clear by a recent School report which described him in these words: ‘One of the most affable, decent young men that one could care to meet or teach; he marries his many innate talents with a determined industry, the combination of which allows him to be successful in all facets of his School life.’”

Bhiramah entered Year 12 in September fresh from celebrating a run of ten grade 9s in his GCSEs – the highest possible grade under the new marking system. His current Head of Year, Lottie Coleman, points to his “compassion, enthusiasm and commitment to all that he does”.

The team of officials includes ten Vice-Captains, six House Captains, six Deputy House Captains and 92 Prefects. One innovation this year is the appointment of three Equality, Diversity & Inclusion Ambassadors – Leo Kucera, Vithusan Kuganathan and Josh Osman: their new positions reflect the increasing focus upon these areas across School life. They have been introduced following discussions conducted with boys through QE’s pupil panel.

“We are committed to nurturing leadership skills among our pupils,” Mr Enright added. “There are opportunities to develop these, beginning from boys’ first arrival in Year 7 and with the prefect system being very much the pinnacle. For those boys who secure a place in this illustrious cohort, there are certainly significant duties and responsibilities, but their positions also serve as a reward for the commitment and broad contributions they have made to the School in their time with us.”

Senior Vice-Captain Fozy Ahmed is a First XV rugby player. Assistant Head David Ryan wrote about him in his Year 11 report that he “sets an excellent example to other students, always acting in a relaxed, but thoughtful manner; he is mature beyond his years but also kind and considerate towards those around him.”

Like the School Captain, Senior Vice-Captain Oscar Smith, performed outstandingly at GCSE, achieving a clean sweep of grade 9s. A particularly keen and able linguist, he is described by Head of Languages Christopher Kidd as “impressive in every way…diligent, industrious and [with] the desire to perform at the very top level. He is mature, acting and working as a young adult, and attaining the results that his hard industry deserves.”

Mr Enright thanked 2018 School Captain Aashish Khimasia and his outgoing team for their efforts and commitment over the course of the year.

All pupils in Years 7–10, staff and some senior boys joined together in the Shearly Hall for a special remembrance assembly to mark the centenary of the Armistice in 1918.

The Headmaster, Neil Enright, read aloud the names of the 48 Old Elizabethans killed during World War I, whilst the names of the 65 who died in World War II were projected on to a screen.

The ceremony featured music, poetry and a procession by the School’s Combined Cadet Force (CCF). The silence at 11 o’clock was heralded by six of QE’s senior trumpeters sounding the Last Post; they played Reveille to signal the end of the silence.

The two-minute silence was also observed separately by Years 11–13, although many were in fact involved in the assembly, whether as readers, musicians or members of the CCF.

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

The Headmaster said afterwards: “This remembrance assembly was a fitting commemoration. It is important for the boys to understand fully the significance of this centenary and to reflect upon the service and sacrifice rendered by their forebears.”

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

Prior to the introduction of conscription in 1916, some 2.5m Britons had volunteered to fight. Participants from many nations sacrificed themselves in the service of the greater good of their communities and home countries. And although there were, of course, many instances of heroism, Mr Cooper said World War I was less about such individual acts than about the huge numbers of ordinary people making the ultimate personal sacrifice in service. He spoke about the importance of remembering, quoting Churchill’s maxim: “A nation that forgets its past has no future,”, which he related to the boys’ understanding of the School’s own history.

The assembly, which took place on Friday, was organised and compèred by English teacher, Micah King, an Extra-curricular Enrichment Tutor. He began with these words: “Welcome to this assembly to commemorate Remembrance Day. In almost exactly 48 hours’ time, it will be the 11th hour, of the 11th day, of the 11th month.

“At that time, 100 years ago, the First World War finally came to an end. It was an Armistice, a peace agreement, signed a few hours earlier in a railway carriage in France, that ended four long years of hostilities. Millions had died. Millions more were wounded. And even those who did not directly take part in the fighting, had to endure heartache and grief, as men and women from around the globe fought, and suffered, and died; and the world changed forever.

“Yet amidst the suffering, heroes on both sides of the battlefield risked their lives and safety for their countries. Incredible acts of courage, dedication and service were witnessed both on the battlefield and on the home front, and today, we will remember and honour those who sacrificed so much for so many.”

The assembly featured:

• A recording of Estonian composer Arvo Pärt’s reflective 1978 piece, Spiegel im Spiegel
• A poem written especially for the occasion by sixth-former Rivu Chowdhury
• School Captain Aashish Khimasia recounting the heroic actions on the battlefield in 1917 that led to Old Elizabethan Acting Captain Allastair McReady-Diarmid being posthumously awarded the Victoria Cross
• The Senior Wind Ensemble performing John William’s Hymn to the Fallen, conducted by Year 13 pupil Binu Perera
• Binu then reading perhaps the most famous single poem from the extensive World War I corpus, John McCrae’s In Flanders Field
• The Barbershop Group performing the hymn, Dear Lord and Father of Mankind, during which a scene from the film, Atonement, was shown, which captured a moment on the Dunkirk beaches in 1940.

Before the retiring procession to the accompaniment of Israel Kamakawiwo’ole’s version of Somewhere Over the Rainbow, Mr King said that if the boys would use their “gifts and talents as leaders to share the message of peace, then that would fill me with a deep sense of hope and optimism for the future”.

The assembly concluded with the School Prayer, which includes the following supplication: “Inspire us, O Lord, so to do our work today that, even as we are being helped by the remembrance of the loyal lives of those who came before us, so our faithfulness in thy service may aid those who shall take our places.”

A group of sixth-formers are working to set up a new charity in London after spending a day out on the streets helping the homeless.

Kieran Dhrona, Humzah Hameed and Kabishan Sivarasan, along with a non-QE friend, planned the event in which around a dozen of their friends from QE and a further 25 from other schools, spent a Saturday handing out essential provisions to homeless people in the heart of the West End.

The group, all in Year 12, gathered packs of water, non-perishable foods, clothes and toiletries from friends and families which they then distributed to those they encountered living on the street. On the day, 85 packs were given out and the volunteers engaged with more than 100 people. In certain cases, where additional needs were observed, they took other steps, such as bringing hot food.

Headmaster Neil Enright said “I sincerely commend the boys for taking the initiative and giving up their own time to organise and participate in this charitable event. It sets a fine example to their peers whilst embodying the QE spirit of service unto others.”

Throughout the day the boys had conversations with people living on the streets from Soho through Leicester Square and Embankment down to Southwark. They gently asked the homeless people they encountered how they came to be in their current position and made sure they were aware of the work of Centrepoint. Centrepoint is a leading homelessness charity which provided a room for the volunteers to use as a base for the day.

Kieran, Humzah and Kabishan are working to set up a new charity called youthconnectionlondon which will focus on helping the homeless in the capital. “The more we grow, the more people we can help,” said Kieran. They are also exploring whether they can work further with Centrepoint, looking for a base from which they could prepare hot food.

Kieran had previous experience of similar charitable activities with his family when younger. “I was touched by it and so thought I’d use my initiative to start this project. We all live in a wealthy city and have grown up in comfort, and often don’t see how others live – yet you have wealth and poverty in such proximity. We are the future generation and it is really important that we make a contribution as early as possible to keep this vital work going.”

They are establishing a social media presence and working on a website to draw in further volunteers.

“I wish them every success as they attempt to establish this charity and help more people as they progress,” said Mr Enright.

One of QE’s leading sixth-formers enjoyed a day of a lifetime rubbing shoulders with members of the Royal Family and celebrities within the walls of Windsor Castle.

Binu Perera, who is a Senior Vice-Captain at QE, was just a few metres from the carriage of the newly-weds as it left the castle.

He was one of 1,200 members of the public invited to the castle for the day by Prince Harry and Meghan Markle, based on nominations from the nine regional Lord Lieutenant offices. Binu was selected by the School for the honour, with the recommendation then passed on to Martin Russell, who is Deputy Lieutenant for the Borough of Barnet and a former QE parent.

Since he is under 18, Binu, of Year 12, was accompanied by his mother as a chaperone. “It was an absolute honour, truly a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity,” he said afterwards. “The wedding was absolutely amazing. Windsor Castle was beautiful, and I had such a great time with my mum. We were so close to the carriage, the rest of the royals – and so many other celebrities. The atmosphere was buzzing!” The picture above was taken by Binu.

“The service itself was wonderful, and there was such a warm and summery atmosphere: it sounds really clichéd, but in many ways, it truly was a perfect wedding,” he adds. “I never imagined that I would be among such a small number of people chosen to attend such an iconic and symbolic event.”

Thanking the School for the opportunity, Binu added: “This royal wedding was a symbolic one: representative of the modern, changing image of Britain – a country of acceptance, variety and multiculturalism. The service itself was unique in terms of the mix of gospel and traditional music and the readings given, embodying the couple’s contemporary approach to the Monarchy.”

Assistant Head David Ryan’s nomination to the Deputy Lieutenant described Binu as “an excellent role model” who set up his own online blog for young people tackling topics as diverse as medical ethics, depression and identity.

“Within the School he has been appointed as senior Vice Captain to the School Captain on account of his excellent record of involvement, in peer-mentoring, in music and a range of other school-based activities. Modest yet charming, witty and effervescent, it is hard not to be impressed by him.

“In many ways he embodies modern Britain; he is hard-working, marrying his innate talents with industry and determination, which underlies his desire to enter the field of medicine when he moves on to undergraduate studies. We recommend him wholeheartedly,” Mr Ryan wrote.