On Thursday 1 December a party from Wren attended the annual awards ceremony of the World Class Schools organisation at the Morris Lecture Theatre, part of St Bartholomew's Hospital in London.  Wren is an inaugural member of the World Class Schools organisation which encourages schools to excel in a range of activities and student dispositions beyond the areas normally assessed by Ofsted.

One of the presentations made during the evening was to the winners of the World Class Schools essay competition.  The intriguingly titled essay 'What evidence do we have that teenagers' brains are different from adults' brains?  Briefly, why do you think teenagers might need brains which work differently?', was completed by 60 Wren Year 9 students earlier this term.  Three essays from Wren were submitted for the stringent short-listing process and we were delighted that one of our students, Sebastian Clarke-Leeser made the final shortlist of 10 students from all of the World Class Schools which entered the competition.  All of the shortlisted students attended the awards ceremony hoping that their’s would be the winning essay.  Thrillingly for everyone from Wren, Sebastian was announced as one of three joint winners of the essay prize.  

The prize was awarded by Dr David Bainbridge, Director of Studies in Veterinary Medicine at Trinity Hall, University of Cambridge.  Dr Bainbridge also marked the short listed essays, scoring each one for clarity, sources, content, argument and impact.  He said 'I was extremely impressed by the standard of what I read.  The participants showed a remarkable ability to gather information from a wide range of sources and to craft it into clear, structured scientific arguments.'

We are very proud of Sebastian.  Part of his prize will be a visit to Dr Bainbridge at Cambridge.

Michael Whitworth

Executive Principal