Another triumphant win for Kingswood philosophers!

10 Kingswood philosophers from Years 9-13 attended the Bath inter-schools Philosothon competition in February, hoping to retain their winning title from last year when they first took part in this event.

The Philosothon is a friendly “competition” between small teams in which pupils participate in a series of “Communities of Inquiry” and are judged by the quality of their participation in the discussion. “This is a brilliant event for budding philosophers”  comments Miss Harriet Wilson, Assistant Head of Sixth Form (Pastoral) and Activities Co-ordinator. “It is so important for our pupils to engage in conversations with pupils from other schools to develop their active listening, leadership, creativity and skills as philosophers.”

Pupils competed against five other local schools and were involved in group discussions with other pupils in their year group, as well as in mixed year groups. As part of these discussions they were invited to consider:

• Whether humans are free to act as they choose or if everything is already pre-determined.
• What is the meaning of success?
• Enquiring what the essences of a person is.

They were judged in each conversation on active listening, creativity, leadership and their skills as a philosopher.

After an enjoyable evening in which all pupils were fully involved in engaging and impressive discussions, Kingswood were announced as the winners.

The judges were impressed by the involvement and skill of the Kingswood pupils, meaning that they were the standout performers of the evening.

Individual prizes were also given and special congratulations should go to Orla and Lily who were both awarded ‘Best Philosopher’ for their respective year groups, and Rubysha who was commended for her participation. The rest of the team was made up of Iris, Manvis, Clemmie, Amy, Ferdie, Ethan, and Elfriede.