Latymer Crowned Philosothon National Champions

On Tuesday 6th May 2025, a team of ten Latymerians travelled to Eton College to take part in the national final of the Philosothon competition. The Philosothon is an international event that sees students from a range of schools pitted against each other in a competitive form of philosophical debate. The school had qualified for the national final having won the London Philosothon, which took place at Latymer in February. The other schools present, all winners of their regional events, were Eton College, St Mary’s Ascot, Cheney School (Oxford), King Edward’s VI Camp Hill School for Girls (Birmingham), Kingswood School (Bath) and Taunton School. 

The competition consists of four twenty-minute rounds in which students are arranged into mixed groups of ten. In each round, students are provided with a stimulus (a short piece of writing with some suggested questions) to provoke discussion about different areas of philosophy. Students are awarded points not for demonstrating the most impressive amount or range of knowledge or for being seen to win the debate, but for the manner in which they engage in it: a student who carefully listens to the views of others and responds appropriately, perhaps by changing their view as a result of what someone else has said, who makes a point that helps to progress the conversation, or helps to ensure that all students have opportunities to participate, will score far higher than someone who tries to dominate or asks rhetorical questions. As a result, the students who score the best are often the ones who forget about the competitive element and simply enjoy participating in the conversation. On the night, the  areas discussed were personal identity, free will, ethics, and patriotism. Philosophy lecturers and professors from a range of universities and other similar academic institutions were brought in as independent judges. 

At the end of the evening, the teams gathered in Eton’s impressive Jafar Hall debating chamber, eager to hear the results. After the highest-scoring student from each school was announced, a double win for Latymer was revealed: Bertie in Year 11 was the top-scoring student in the whole competition, and Latymer were the overall winners, closely followed by Kingswood and Cheney. This year is the first that Latymer have won the London Philosothon, so to also come away as national champions is a great achievement of which all of our students and staff can be very proud. Our thanks go in particular to Mrs Dunleay, who first introduced the competition to the school in 2019, Mr Qasim, acting Head of Religion and Philosophy, and Mr Galazoulas, who has coached the team over the course of the academic year.

Author: Sohni Malde