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Sibelius have launched their Student Composer of the Year competition with three varied categories for entries: music for film, contemporary classical and jazz.

There are also two age categories: 10 – 16 and 17 – 18. Mr Howe, Director of Music, would love to see a number of entries from our talented composers throughout the School on this national stage. Further information and links to register for the competition can be seen at Sibelius’ website.

Prizes include master-classes with the judges who are some of the music world’s biggest names including composers, conductors, ensembles and film directors, plus a whole load of great hardware and software for music-making .

Envisage, one of QE’s 2008 Young Enterprise teams, reached the Pan London Finals of the competition and took the prize for the best presentation.

Led by Link teacher Vickash Seeburrun, Envisage developed the Bon Appetit Discount Card – a restaurant card that was adopted by some of London’s top eating places.

Both Envisage and the other QE team, QuEst, reached the North London round of Young Enterprise after success at the initial area round. At the North London round, the teams had to set up a display stand and deliver a presentation in front of eight other competing companies, five judges and parents. “Both companies delivered their presentations in a very professional and sophisticated manner,” said Mr Seeburrun.

QuEst, which developed an e-learning game called Destination Zero designed to make employees more environmentally aware at home and in the workplace, won the award for best display stand. Envisage took awards both for the best presentation and as the best company overall, which meant it went forward to the Pan London Finals as the sole North London school.

Held at the Credit Suisse building, Canary Wharf, the Pan London Finals featured inspirational presentations from Levi Roots, of Dragon’s Den fame, and from Dan McGuire, current Young Entrepreneur of the Year and Managing Director of Broadbean Technology.

The following Y10 boys represented the Envisage team at the Pan London Final: Jed Wilsher, Sergio Ronchetti-Carrete, Nir Shah, Kamran Tajbakhsh and Jonathan Flowers.

Nine boys in Year 13 represented the UK at an International Youth Forum in Istanbul, organised by the European Youth Parliament.

They thoroughly enjoyed the opportunity to debate with teams from 15 countries and to formulate solutions to some of the most pertinent problems that the world faces today. New friendships were also formed with equally intelligent and lively delegates from other countries, including Italy, the Netherlands and Russia.

QE boys were highly praised for their professional approach and mature attitude throughout the five-day event, according to QE’s Head of French, Susan Chatterton. The team spent 12 months preparing for the event, holding weekly debating practices and going on visits to the European Commission and the House of Lords. Mrs Chatterton, who oversaw the preparations, took the team from the Regional Forum in the Foreign and Commonwealth Office through to the National session in Durham.

The School’s Success in Istanbul has led to several invitations to attend future forums and the team has been accepted on to the International Olympic Forum to be held in Greece in August 2008.

Boys in the lower years of the School have been performing strongly on the cricket field this term.

At time of writing the U12 and U13 teams have reached the final stage of the Middlesex Cup, with the U12s remaining unbeaten this season after ten Saturday fixtures against ten different schools. “Two boys, Daniel Green, Year 12, and Neil Gujar, Year 8, have scored a century each in a school fixture, which is a significant achievement,” said Head of Games Mark Peplow.

In athletics, Barnet Athletics League and Barnet Championships provide the main focus for QE boys.

“We have continued to perform well across the year groups, although Year 7 have struggled to maintain our usual dominance,” said Mr Peplow.

Twenty-five boys were selected to represent Barnet in the Middlesex Championships. A number were then placed in their finals and are currently waiting to hear if they have been selected to represent Middlesex at the All England Championships.

Out of ten Year 13 QE entrants to the Institute of Biology’s annual Biology Olympiad, two achieved Silver awards, five Bronze, one was Highly Commended and one Commended. Two Year 13 boys were also awarded Silver in the National Chemistry Olympiad.

This term the School arranged for 10 Year 12 boys to attend a Spectroscopy day at Imperial College, giving them hands-on experience of equipment that is too large and expensive to have in schools.

To mark Global Immunology Day, members of the British Society for Immunology from University College London staged a special debate at QE. It looked at the positive role of the immune system in combating infection and cancer, and contrasted it with immune dysfunction, such as allergies, asthma and immunodeficiency. The format allowed boys to weigh up the pros and cons of immunity, and the challenges facing researchers.

Pupil Prasana Uthayakumar is high on the reserve list for an Arkwright Scholarship – a scheme under which successful scholars are sponsored for their Sixth Form studies by a leading engineering company. Prasana reached the interview stage of the assessment process after achieving success in the initial written examination. He was then highly commended for his interview.

A number of interesting and innovative designs featured in QE boys’ 2008 A level Design and Technology work, including a plan for a wheelchair laptop table and architectural projects looking at new school buildings, theatre sets and recording studios.