The first Liberal Arts essay competition for Lower Sixth pupils attracted a strong field of thoughtful responses. The essay titles aimed to facilitate the linking and development of overarching arguments between discrete areas of academic specialisms in the Sixth Form.

The choice of essay titles was: “What is the value of myth?” and “Literature cannot be divorced from its context – discuss”.

Pupils attended talks in the Michaelmas Term in advance of their own research and writing. Their wide-ranging interests, including praiseworthy independent reading in literature, languages, visual arts, philosophy, psychology, and ancient and modern history, made for ambitious and interesting responses.

The winner was Izzy (L); the runner up Lucy (W); and both Gayatri (N) and Tom (C ) were awarded joint proxime accessit.