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Queen Elizabeth’s School came seventh out of 70 schools competing in the national finals of the prestigious Team Maths Challenge. It was the first time that a QE team had reached the national round of the competition, which is organised by the United Kingdom Mathematics Trust.

Captain Nigethan Sathiyalingam and his fellow team members, Shane Mahen, Gabriel Gendler and Madhi Elango, had previously seen off 35 other teams to win outright at the regional final held at Haberdashers’ Aske’s Girls’ School earlier in the Summer Term.

Congratulating the Year 8/9 team on their success, Mathematics teacher Wendy Fung said: “This competition provides an in-depth test of students’ mathematical knowledge and ability, so it is a tremendous achievement to have achieved a top-ten place from among schools across the whole country.”

The national finals took place at the Camden Centre in London and involved top-scoring teams from all the regional finals. Among the exercises that the entrants had to tackle during the competition were:

• Crossnumber – similar to a crossword, but with numerical answers 
• Head-to-head – participants paired against an opponent and competed to be the first to answer questions 
• Group competition – teams worked on ten questions, working in pairs, individually or together as they prefer 
• Poster competition (national final only) – teams were sent information in advance about a topic for research and investigation.

At the final, they made a poster incorporating materials that they had prepared while addressing related questions given out on the day.

All participants in the national final received a certificate and ‘goody bag’.

QE’s GCSE students have been highly commended by the moderators from examination board OCR for the impeccable standard of their coursework folders and their attention to detail on their practical work.

The Resistant Materials Chief Examiner said: “It’s a pleasure to save the best to last and QE’s [students] always provide me with a benchmark standard as to what other schools should aspire to.”

QE pupils Priyesh Patel and Sam Catchpole-Smith have both been offered final interviews to secure a place on the prestigious Arkwright Scholarship scheme. This entitles students to a financial subsidy to help towards their academic studies and, more importantly, close working connections with cutting-edge engineering firms. The Arkwright Scholarship is recognised as the flagship accomplishment pupils can achieve at Key Stage 4.

• Four pupils in Year 12 selected to be involved in the Engineering Education Scheme have received the British Science Association’s CREST award and have made good progress in their work with local company Lovell. Jack Evans, Andrew Kettenis, Ibiyemi Ogunyemi and Rikesh Poonja had to design an energy system based on a hydrogen fuel cell that could be incorporated into new property developments to power heating and lighting in a more sustainable way. After a three-day workshop at the University of Hertfordshire, the team was praised for its presentation and the clarity of its final proposal.

Two QE teams emerged as runners-up in the National Team Championships, while two boys won recognition for outstanding individual performances.

Both the U14 team, captained by Year 8 pupil Madhi Elango, and the U12 team, headed by Joseph Levene of Year 7, took second place after six closely contested rounds at the championships held over two days at Pontin’s Holiday Centre in Somerset.

Teacher Geoffrey Roberts said: “There were some outstanding individual performances, with two boys winning prizes for the leading performance on their board; Reyvanth Varathan, of Year 9, and Joseph Levene, of Year 7, who won all of his games.”

The U16 team, captained by Kushal Shah, finished in fifth position. In addition to the successes of the A teams, Mr Roberts reported that QE’s B teams competed at U16 and U14 levels and gained valuable tournament experience.

QE’s Bollywood Orchestra won a place in the Music for Youth National Festival in July.

Eighteen boys from Years 9-12 prepared a version of A R Rahman’s Raga’s Dance, including elements of improvisation, at the Bollywood workshop at the start of March, working with Bollywood expert Sam Suriakumar. They first entered a recording of this in one of the regional festivals run by Music for Youth, a long-established educational charity.

The boys played at the National Festival at the Adrian Boult Hall, part of the Birmingham Conservatoire. The performance also included pupils from Queen Elizabeth’s Girls’ School dancing to the QE boys’ music.

Fifteen groups of boys from QE entered this year’s Young Direct Marketing Awards. A team from Year 10 and another from Year 8 both reached the final, achieving silver and bronze medals.

Sponsored by the Direct Marketing Association (DMA), these prestigious awards offer teams of students aged 11-16 the opportunity to work on a real charity brief, giving hands-on experience of the creative and business principles involved in direct marketing. The DMA is a leading non-profit marketing trade association.

Queen Elizabeth School’s Junior Awards Day celebrated the “truly outstanding achievements” of boys in Years 7-9.

A total of 114 awards were made to boys at the ceremony. The prizewinners were lauded by the Headmaster, Dr John Marincowitz: “Today’s occasion provides an opportunity for us to recognise and celebrate those junior boys whose academic and extra-curricular achievements have been identified as truly outstanding. In doing so, we set a milestone in the unfolding of interesting careers.

“Truly outstanding achievements warrant a measure and those who have distinguished themselves in a context where standards are generally very high are truly worthy of our celebration. It is these highly talented and committed young men who have demonstrated such exceptional qualities whom we celebrate tonight,” Dr Marincowitz added.

The Guest of Honour was Old Elizabethan (1964-74) Dr Fraser MacFarlane, an acknowledged management expert who is now Senior Lecturer in Health Care Management and Postgraduate Admissions Tutor at the University of Surrey. He is also Programme Director for the University’s MSc in Health Care Management and currently supervises the work of 10 PhD students.

The Junior Awards comprise academic subject-related awards, House awards and awards for outstanding commitment in each of the first three years, as well as endowed prizes and special awards.

Musical divertissements during the ceremony were provided by the School’s young musicians led by Director of Music, Kieron Howe. These included works by Beethoven, Chopin and Rimsky-Korsakov, as well as a recessional composed by Mr Howe.