Essay Competition Successes

Congratulations to two Bancroftians who have both been placed second in leading essay prizes.

Ben Norris obtained second place in the Kelvin Science essay competition with a discussion entitled “There is no such thing as electron deficient compounds, only theory deficient Chemists.”  He attended the prize giving at Peterhouse College, Cambridge on 24 July.  Ben has also been awarded a Roentgenium  certificate in the Cambridge Chemistry Challenge for L6 pupils, this puts him in the top 55 scores from over 7200 entries (in the top 0.76%!) and it is Bancroft’s first certificate at this level. Ben has been invited to a special residential chemistry camp at St Catherine’s College, Cambridge.

 Shaina Sangha was placed second in the Orwell Youth Prize competition. Inspired by The Orwell Prize for Journalism, Britain’s most prestigious prize for political writing, the Orwell Youth Prize is now in its second year and aims to support and inspire a new generation of politically engaged young writers.   For the prize, Shania had to submit a piece of writing on the theme of “If Liberty means anything at all it means the right to tell people what they do not want to hear” (George Orwell). In her essay she discussed the stigmatisation of victims of sexual assault. Shaina was invited to the Orwell Youth Prize Celebration Day 2016, which took place on Friday 24 June at Pembroke College, Oxford.

In addition, Lily Eagland’s entry into the Vellacott History essay competition was commended by the judges at Peterhouse College, Cambridge. Lily’s essay ‘Why was child labour a problem for 19th century societies?’ was included in the final shortlist.

These are all considerable achievements given the high level of competition for such prizes.  These essay competitions give pupils the opportunity to write about a subject in which they are personally interested, developing and experiencing the study skills which they will need for A Level and University.