House Philosophy Competition

Each year, pupils are invited to submit entries to our Philosophy Essay Competition to win points for their Houses.

This year’s theme was social cohesion, with pupils across the Senior School penning through-provoking essays on topics such as free speech and social media. Bella was the winner in the Year 7/8 category with her discussion on the need to balance freedom of speech with the potential harm it can cause to others, focusing in particular on the notion of hate speech. Highly commended entries came from Astrid and Amelie, also in Year 8.

The winner in the Year 9 to 11 category was Obehi in Year 9 who discussed whether there should be restrictions on speech, drawing upon the ideas of Aristotle and J S Mill. Highly commended entries came from Leah in Year 9, Lucy in Year 10 and Samiha in Year 11.  In the Sixth Form category, Freya’s winning essay gave a balanced consideration of both the harms and potential for good offered by social media, which drew upon a number of contemporary examples for support. Keya was also highly commended for her entry.

Congratulations to all who took part.