In the summer term, several Year 12 students entered the John Locke Institute Essay Competition. Subject areas included Politics, Philosophy, Psychology, Economics, History and Law.

Ismail Surty wrote a well-considered piece on whether peace in the West Bank and Gaza Strip is possible. Shaun George and Aleks Chumakova (pictured below) both discussed whether we have any good reasons to trust our moral intuition, each drawing a different conclusion:

"Morality is a strange sort of property that we ultimately cannot trust our intuition to supply." – Shaun

"To ensure the continuation of a functioning society we must doubt, but never fully deny, the reliability of our moral intuition." - Aleks

All short-listed students were invited to an awards ceremony at Grosvenor House in Mayfair, London on Saturday, 21 September where the key note speaker was Liz Truss. Students enjoyed a three-course meal and received a certificate. Congratulations to all shortlisted students, and especial congratulations to the two students who were highly commended. The shortlisted students were:

Richan Drever - History
Eva Farquhar - Law - merit
Shubham Baheti - Economics – very highly commended
Aleks Chumakova - Philosophy
Shaun George - Philosophy - highly commended
Ismail Surty - Politics