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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.

Old Elizabethan and 2008 Paralympics gold medallist Tom Aggar and current pupil Kem Onubogu both received prestigious awards at the annual Barnet Celebrating Sports Awards.

More than 300 guests and nominees attended the event at North London Business Park, including the Mayor of Barnet, Councillor John Marshall, Olympic triple jumper Larry Achike and QE’s Headmaster, Dr John Marincowitz.

The prizes were presented by Larry Achike and Barnet Principal Inspector Schools and Learning, Mick Quigley.

Tom, who triumphed in the men’s single sculls in Beijing and is also the reigning world champion, won the borough’s overall Sporting Achievement of the Year Award. He had in fact been nominated by the School for the Disability Award even before his achievement in the Paralympics.

A graduate of Warwick University, Tom, 24, was a pupil at Queen Elizabeth’s School between 1995 and 2002. He started rowing to keep fit in 2005 after a serious accident had left him paralysed.

As well as receiving his award, Tom also took part in a question-and-answer session at the ceremony.

Kem outstripped two other local young people to take the Young Volunteer of the Year Award for his work supporting sport and PE at a local primary school. He was required to do a minimum of 10 hours’ work as part of the Community Sports Leadership Award scheme, but in fact put in more than 50 hours. He was nominated by the primary school.

Dr Marincowitz said: “The borough’s award for Tom Aggar marks a fitting end to a tremendous year in which his dedication, his strength of character and his skill in his chosen sport have been richly and deservedly rewarded. I would also like to congratulate Kem for his award. At QE, we seek to ensure that our boys not only achieve academic success and personal fulfilment, but also make a contribution to society: Kem is an excellent example of that.”

Queen Elizabeth’s School has qualified for the knockout stages of a prestigious Mathematics competition for schools across London and the Home Counties.

QE emerged as group winners in the Hans Woyda Mathematics Competition after victories in all three group matches, against North London Collegiate School, St Alfred’s School and St Michael’s School. The team comprised: Year 13 student Akhil Shah; Ariel Weiss, of Year 12; Hone Cheung and Kamran Tajbakhsh, of Year 11, and Year 9 boy Nigethan Sathiyalingam.

The tournament, which has been running for 29 years, involves 64 top schools from the state and independent sectors. It was named after a former Head of Mathematics at Kingston Grammar School.

The Music department is pleased to announce that along with his offer of a place to read Physics at the University of Durham, Benjamin Yadin, in Year 13, has been awarded a Music scholarship.

Benjamin is one of 25 recipients from a pool of candidates applying in music, sport and drama.

Sixth-Former Jacob Hilton has qualified for the second round of the Senior British Mathematical Olympiad – the first time a QE boy has progressed so far in this prestigious competition. Jacob is also celebrating the offer of a place from Trinity College, Cambridge, to read Mathematics.

He was placed 49th out of 1,308 candidates in the first round of the competition, which is entered mainly by pupils who have already performed well in the earlier UK Senior Mathematics Challenge. He won a bronze medal as well as a book prize, The Backbone of Pascal’s Triangle by Martin Griffiths.

“Jacob has excelled himself with this performance. We congratulate him on this fantastic achievement and wish him well for the second round of the Olympiad taking place on Thursday 29th January 2009,” said Head of Mathematics Gee Scarisbrick. 

• A total of 23 boys in this year’s Year 13 at QE currently (January 2009) have Oxbridge offers, with 19 at Cambridge and four at Oxford. The most popular subjects amongst these are Law, with four offers, and Economics, Engineering and Natural Sciences, for which there are three offers each.

Queen Elizabeth’s School has been awarded a rare and prestigious accolade in recognition of its achievements in chess and its work to promote the game.

Just two schools are selected annually to receive the British Chess Educational Trust Award. The awards, which are administered by the English Chess Federation, began in 1913. QE was last chosen in 1952.

The award citation details the high priority given to chess development at the School over many years, pointing out, for example, that it has entered the Times chess competition since at least 1959 and consistently enters the largest number of teams of any school into the UK Schools Chess Championship. The citation also highlights QE’s “growing reputation” in chess, as evidenced in recent years by its invitation to compete in an international tournament in Dubai.

QE Chess Master Geoff Roberts says: “We have in excess of 100 boys of a wide variety of standards, who regularly participate in a wide variety of chess activities. We are very pleased to have been nationally recognised as a school that makes a significant contribution to the development of chess.” 

• The citation and the list of current and previous winners of the award are published at www.bcf.org.uk/events/bcfawards/bcet.htm.

On 2nd March, 19 boys took part in the Bollywood workshop with Sam Suriakumar. The boys worked for three hours putting together over six minutes’ worth of music.

They played a version of A.R.Rahman’s Raga’s Dance including elements of improvisation. The boys worked with very different notation to that which they were used to, having to listen to, work out and remember the rhythms and structure of the piece. The boys played a mixture of both Western and Indian instruments and combined them seamlessly. The performance will go forward to form our entry for the Music for Youth festival. Listen to the recording here.

Upper Sixth-Former Jian-Siang Poh has been selected to participate in the second round of this year’s Chemistry Olympiad. Last year, only 23 students from across the country reached this stage of the competition.

Round 1 consisted of a two-hour examination which Jian-Siang sat at QE earlier this term, together with classmates Jimmy Lam and Jack Scannell. Rounds 1 and 2 of the competition are organised by the Royal Society of Chemistry.

“Jiang-Siang scored very highly, achieving a score of 55 out of 64 to secure his place in the next round” says QE’s Head of Science, Malcolm Russell.

The second round takes place at Cambridge University on 27th-29th March and will this year involve around 25 students. From these, four or five will be selected to represent the UK in July at the 41st International Chemistry Olympiad, which is also being held in Cambridge – the first time the international competition has ever come to this country.

The 33rd annual Rugby Sevens tournament at Queen Elizabeth’s School was a great success, with good rugby underpinned by excellent organisation.

The annual seven-a-side tournament, believed to be the country’s second-biggest schools sevens competition, takes place on the second Sunday each March. This year, it featured 40 leading schools, with teams from as far afield as The Wirral, Gloucestershire and Wales. Games are played on fullsize pitches at the School and at Barnet RFC.

Teams compete in group stages at U14 and U16 levels, with 32 teams in each age division. The winner of each group goes through to the Main quarter-finals, while the second-placed team proceeds to the Plate quarter-finals.

QE U16s reached the semi-final of the Plate competition, while the U14s were knocked out following the group stage.

Head of Games Mark Peplow said: “This was another highly successful tournament that ran smoothly throughout the day, with very competitive rugby played in an excellent spirit of good sportsmanship.”

Mr Peplow paid tribute to the contributions made by the staff, the London Society of Referees and by the QE ‘tea mums’, who raised £250 for the North London Hospice.