Honourable mention for ‘World Class’ student essayist

16 January 2023 | School News

Congratulations to year 9 student Kira who received an honourable mention in this year’s World Class Schools essay writing competition.

The competition was open to all schools awarded the World Class Schools Quality Mark, and this year there were more submissions than ever before! 

The essay theme ‘Friendship’ was set by the renowned writer and Oxford university academic  Robert Douglas-Fairhurst who was blown away by the quality of submissions, and said the writing he encountered was “generous, fun, original, and unusually smart and sophisticated for students at this stage.” 

Miranda Perry, Director of WCSQM said:

“Our annual essay writing competition gives us the opportunity to prove what we have always known; that students at our non-selective state schools have skills and competencies that are the best in the world, as judged, in this instance, by an Oxford University professor.” 

Well done Kira, we look forward to reading your future writing endeavours.

About World Class School

World Class Schools Quality Mark is a UK charity, made up of some of the best non-selective state schools in the country.  They are an award making body, which awards schools their quality mark according to whether the schools’ students can demonstrate the skills and competencies of our assessment framework.  

About Robert Douglas-Fairhurst 

Robert Douglas-Fairhurst is a Fellow of Magdalen College and Professor of English Literature at the University of Oxford. His books include Becoming Dickens: The Invention of a Novelist, The Story of Alice: Lewis Carroll and the Secret History of Wonderland, and he writes regularly for publications including The Times, Guardian, Times Literary Supplement, and Literary Review. He has also acted as a consultant on BBC productions of Jane Eyre, Emma, and Great Expectations, and the 2019 feature film Enola Holmes. In 2015, he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature.