QEH Yardstock 2025

June saw the launch of QEH’s first ever Yardstock Festival, a brand-new celebration of live music right in the heart of school. The stage was set and the sun was shining as staff and pupils gathered for a lunch time like no other. Born out of a huge enthusiasm for live music and the ever-growing open mic scene here at QEH, Yardstock gave our talented pupils a well-earned stage to shine after the hard work of GCSEs and A Levels. The community were treated to a wide variety of performances from ballads to indie rock, and even some jaw-dropping beatboxing, the performances spanned genres and year groups — and every act brought something special to the stage. Year 7 bands wowed the crowds with excellent renditions of Bloc Party’s Helicopter by Burnt Toast, Green Day’s Holiday by Schoolboy Error, Foster the People’s Pumped up Kicks by the Stowaways and Oscar C performed the most remarkable beatboxing – a QEH first!

Years 8 and 9 Bands were equally as popular with Aftermath performing Guns N’Roses  Sweet Child of Mind before The Killsons delivered What you know  by Two Door Cinema!

The teachers band finished the occasion with Pink Floyd’s  Another Brick in the Wall’ featuring the ironic lines of ‘we don’t need no education’ and ‘hey teacher leave them kids alone’ – cleverly changed to ‘hey kids leave them teachers alone’!

Please click the link to see our Yardstock video!

Here’s to the start of a great new QEH tradition, we are already looking forward to Yardstock 2026!