Several students from West Exe School, part of the Ted Wragg Trust, recently took part in Philosothon UK.

A Philosothon is a friendly “competition” between small teams in which students participate in a series of “Communities of Inquiry” and are judged by the quality of their participation. Students are asked to consider open-ended questions which require an extended response and typically involve appeal to more than one discipline. 

Students are asked to have a conversation in mixed age group teams about a clearly defined philosophical or ethical issue. They are judged by professional philosophers from local universities on the level of their engagement with the topic and with each other.

Following on from their impressive performance in the University of Oxford Schools’ Debating Competition, Mia Wyatt and Amelie Walch in Year 10, joined together with Year 11s Poppy O’Neale and Evie Kane and Year 9s Flo Richardson and Klara Oczko to represent West Exe School at Philosothon UK. 

The whole team was amazing, making some really insightful comments and respectfully challenging or questioning the views of the students from the other competing schools.  At the end of the evening, Evie came second in her age-range scoring a fantastic 77/100, agonisingly missing out on finishing joint first by one point.

 Julie Fossey, Headteacher at West Exe School said:

“I am so proud of every student who represented West Exe at Philosothon UK, they did fantastically well.  There is a perception that philosophy is an outdated, navel gazing subject, however the critical thinking aspects it promotes are relevant to all sorts of issues and careers in modern day life.  At West Exe we know it’s not just what you know that’s important but your ability to question information and come to your own conclusions and embracing philosophy is a great way of promoting that.”

Moira Marder, CEO of the Ted Wragg Multi-Academy Trust said:

“It’s brilliant to hear how well the students from West Exe did at Philosothon UK, everyone at the trust is so proud of their efforts and achievements at this national platform.”