Queen Elizabeth's Grammar School For Boys - Culture and Sports

Culture and Sports

Queen Elizabeth's School is divided into six houses, named after famous old boys, patrons and former teachers. They are Broughton, Harrisons', Leicester, Pearce, Stapylton and Underne. There are many inter-house competitions, from rugby to creative writing. The inter-house debating tournaments, for all years, take place at the end of the year and are probably the most fiercely contested non-physical inter-house competition.

Rugby union, played during the Winter and Spring terms, is compulsory for boys in their first four years at the school, as are cross-country running and most other school sports, which include orienteering, swimming, basketball, tennis, cricket, Eton Fives and athletics. QE is well known for not practising football in lessons or playing football competitively against other schools. A particularly boggy part of the cross-country route, suitably nicknamed the 'Elephant Dip', due to its depth, links Barnet Rugby Club and the north-west gate of the bottom fields.

There is much competition in the Summer term when frequent competitions between houses are held before the summer examinations begin in June, including the QE Sevens Tournament which takes place in the school for the U14's and U16's it is normally held at the end of the Spring Term.