The Judging Process

First Stage: 

The RS Teacher leading the project in their school receives a number of essays on any of the approved, or other internally approved titles, 7-10 days before the competition deadline.  This teacher, with their department, judges the essays and selects the best (up to 5) to send to SMSJ.  These must be sent via email to: k.papasavva@smsj.london who is the organiser of this competition, in the stipulated format (see: Guidance to Students). 

Second Stage: 

SMSJ will conduct a second round judging process, which will be anonymised for equity - this is why it is imperative that submissions follow the specified format.  Received entries will be judged by: Kyriacos Papasavva, author and former tutor at Heythrop College and a guest academic.  From all the submissions, just 10 will be selected for the next stage. 

The respective schools will be informed at this time which pupils have made it to the final round by email. 

Final Round: 

The named academic will select the best 5 from the final 10; choosing: 1st - 3rd prizes, and 2 runners up; each of these 5 will receive a short response about the quality of their work and something to improve upon from the academic written directly to the students. 

The respective schools will be informed at this time which pupils have won the competition.  School addresses will be requested so that we can send you the prizes; once received, you can conduct any celebration events/issue prizes - please allow some time for this to be processed. 

Kindly note: 

It is the primary intention of this competition to allow students the opportunity to have their work read and/or responded to by philosophers, theologians and other academics, to further develop the appreciation for and reputation of our subject amongst pupils and colleagues, and to encourage a love of Philosophy, Theology, and Ethics amongst all pupils.  As such, there is no appeals process and all judges decisions are final.  This is intended as a friendly, congenial extra curricular activity for us all to enjoy and benefit from.