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Year 13 Economist Promit Anwar is the joint winner of The Royal Economic Society’s Young Economist of the Year Competition 2008. Promit (pictured meeting the Mayor of Barnet, Councillor John Marshall) beat off competition from nearly 400 other entries from as far afield as Singapore to claim the title and £1,000 prize.

The task was to write up to 2,000 words on which economic idea or policy has most power to improve our lives. Promit wrote on international finance policy, putting the case for the creation of an international currency to supplant the dollar. He argued that this would help economic development by improving investment efficiency, easing macro imbalances and providing an international policy instrument. The other joint winner was Lizzy Burden from Withington Girls’ School.

A team of 12 experienced Economics teachers drew up a shortlist. The final judging process was performed by Charles Bean (Deputy Governor, Bank of England), Stephanie Flanders (Economics Editor, BBC) and John Vickers (RES President).

Mr Vickers said: “The Young Economist of the Year Competition…has again excited great interest and brought forth impressive talent. Two entries stood out: Promit Anwar’s thoughtful analysis of global reserves policy and Lizzy Burden’s sharp and engaging account of the power of game theory.” 

• Promit and fellow Year 13 student Richard Alam have successfully reached the regional round of the English Speaking Union Mace Debating Competition, thanks to an excellent performance against five local independent schools.

QE A Level Politics students have been getting behind the headlines surrounding the election of Barack Obama as the next US President.

Boys in Year 13 study American politics and this term have followed the historic events not only by reading the Washington Post and New York Times, but also by attending a conference on US politics at the British Library. During this event they had the opportunity to question two members of the US Congress, as well as hearing from a number of British academics.

Domestic politics were the order of the day when Year 12 boys visited the Houses of Parliament. As well as hearing about the work of Parliament, they met with Shadow Cabinet member Theresa Villiers, MP for Chipping Barnet. Boys had the chance to stand at the Dispatch Box, where the Prime Minister faces David Cameron each week in Prime Minister’s Questions.

Later in the term, the Year 12 boys returned to Westminster for the Sixth Form Politics Conference at Westminster Central Hall. Speakers included Cabinet Members Jack Straw and Harriet Harman, leading opposition figures such as William Hague and Charles Kennedy, the colourful George Galloway and the First Minister for Wales, Rhodri Morgan.

Two Year 11 groups learned more about two contrasting parts of their GCSE Economics course on a visit to London.

In the first part of the trip, boys visited the Westferry Print Works in Bethnal Green, where national newspaper titles such as the Guardian and Financial Times are printed. They investigated how the theories and concepts of Production Economics work in a real factory and were fascinated by the speed at which the presses were churning out newspapers – 17 complete copies per second!

“Much to their amusement, the boys even got to meet the firm’s fleet of 40 unmanned robots, although some of these hard-working souls were too busy lugging 1-ton rolls of paper across the shopfloor!” said teacher Maziar Homayounnejad.

In the second part of the trip, the QE students visited the Bank of England Museum, where they heard a lecture covering the importance of money in today’s economy, as well as other current issues in the global financial system. “For most boys, the highlight of their day was getting to lift a real gold bullion bar and seeing a real £1 million note, which, incidentally, is no longer legal tender.”

QE’s keen young geographers ventured deep into the woods on a field trip that combined fun with the serious purpose of investigating the sustainable use of the forest.

Year 7 and 8 took part in the Geo-explorers extra-curricular activity at Mop End, Amersham, which culminated in a fierce debate about how the forest should best be managed.

The boys investigated animals in their natural habitat and looked at the cost of different types of timber. The data collection involved taking measurements to calculate the height of trees, as well as capturing invertebrates for identification and recording their distribution on tally charts both for deciduous forest and coniferous forest areas.

“This was a highlight, as the boys had to suck small creatures into the storage container using a plastic tube: only one bug was eaten during this tricky process!” says Geography teacher Sarah Gibbons. One boy, Timothy Chan, was heard to say: “I think I just swallowed the centipede.”

During the final debate, the viewpoints of local people, builders, tourists and developers were all considered. The teachers were assigned the role of the builders – prompting Year 8 boy Daniel Fernando and Rahul Sethi, of Year 7, to ask if they could earn a merit by voting for them – but in the end the pupils representing the tourists’ views emerged triumphant.

“Geo-explorers runs two field trips a year and aims to promote geography by giving boys a creative and educational outdoors experience,” said Miss Gibbons.

German exchange teenagers learned how to play rugby during a visit to Queen Elizabeth’s School.

The students from Friedrich von Bodelschwingh School in Bielefeld spent a week being hosted by 20 Year 10 and 11 boys. It was the return leg of the two schools’ exchange and followed a visit to Bielefeld by the QE in pupils in June 2008.

Jens Ohlemeyer, the teacher at Friedrich von Bodelschwingh School in charge of the exchange, said: “It is a wonderful cultural and linguistic experience for young people to take part in such an exchange. We are delighted to have this link with Queen Elizabeth’s and it is fantastic to see such great friendships grow over the course of the exchange. Our students cherish the opportunity to be part of this trip.”

This was the fourth year of the exchange. During their stay, the visitors spent time on the rugby field and getting to grips with a typical English school day. They and their hosts visited London together and went on the London Eye. They also enjoyed a mini-Olympics and a party at QE.

“We are grateful to the parents of the boys involved for hosting the German students and for organising activities for them,’” said QE’s Head of German, Burgunde Lukasser.

Queen Elizabeth’s School this year hosted the North London heats of the Geographical Association’s popular Worldwise Quiz.

Eleven schools from both the state and independent sectors competed on the night. Each team comprised three students drawn from Year 10 or below.

QE’s first team of Year 10 boys – Akash Gandhi, James Warshaw and Ryan Murphy – came joint second overall, just four points behind the winning team from Haberdashers’ Aske’s Boys’ School.

“The QE team were winning all the way through the quiz until the final round, when they were pipped at the post,” said Geography teacher Sarah Gibbons. “QE enters this competition annually and, in many ways, this year’s performance was similar to 2007, when we came second by just one point.”

There were eight rounds to the quiz, with titles such as Geography in the news, Country Outlines and the OS Map round. All competitors received certificates, a book on the water crisis and dams and a geography badge.

The leading teams from the local heats not only progress to the further rounds of the competition but are also invited to take part in the Worldwise Challenge, a free weekend of activities with schools from other areas of the UK at a Field Study Centre. The QE first team are now waiting for confirmation of whether their scores were high enough to qualify. The School’s reserve team consisted of Matthew Gottrick, Parth Patel and Ruhaid Khurram.

QE’s Assistant Head Neil Enright and Head of Geography Anne Flook were the chief markers, while Miss Gibbons was the local organiser and quizmaster. A group of Sixth-Formers assisted staff during the event.