Summer essay and symposium
Entry was entirely voluntary and the response was outstanding: some 85 essays were submitted at the end of the sumer break, each one of which demonstrated independence of thought, scholarship and initiative.
Acknowledging the significance of the research involved and the quality of the essays, each submission was reviewed in a tutorial with a teacher. Topics covered included:
- The treatment of insomnia via placebo effect
- Why we can’t remember being infants
- The poetics of disappointment
- Rousseau’s theories of freedom and equality
- Defence of arguments concerning the unreality of time’s flow
- The effect of cinema on modern politics
- The influence of Bob Dylan on the music of John Lennon
- Intermittent fasting as a means of combating the obesity epidemic
- The game of Risk: a strategy guide
Last month, many essayists attended a symposium at the school and 25 gave talks. There were talks, too, by invited girls from St Paul’s Girls’ School.
Chaired by members of staff, attended by boys’ peers, parents, teachers and governors, the atmosphere was both scholarly and informal, with fascinating, interdisciplinary discussions. Four prize winners were chosen, four entrants were highly commended and another seven were shortlisted for their distinction.
