Brentwood School student among essay writing elite

The New College of the Humanities announced the winners of their 2019 NCH London Essay Competition at a special award ceremony in London and Brentwood School Sixth Former Kimberley Shaw was among the winners.

The College received 3,600 entries into this year’s essay competition and 17-year-old Kimberley was awarded Third Prize with her submission centred on the Law question ‘Was the EU Commission correct to fine Google for abuse of a strong market position in online markets?’

Professor A C Grayling, Master of the College, alongside the College’s academic faculty and students, hosted the award ceremony, held in Bedford Square Gardens. One hundred and fifty highly commended high school essay writers and their guests enjoyed the VIP event.

Prizes were awarded in all the seven major subjects taught at undergraduate level at the College. In each category, the First prize was £1,000, the first runner-up was £500, the second runner-up was £250, and a third runner up was awarded a £40 voucher. Everyone who was highly commended received a £20 voucher.

Professor Grayling said: “The College received 3,600 entries into this year’s essay competition, and 150 students were shortlisted and invited to this award ceremony. To be in the top 4% of essayists is exceptional. Every individual who has been shortlisted deserves to be very proud of their academic achievement.”

Now in its third year, the NCH London Essay Competition was founded to inspire and encourage students from around the world who are in their penultimate year of secondary education and have a passion for the humanities and social sciences, to pursue their interest in these subjects and to further develop their critical thinking and writing skills.

Chaired by Professor Grayling, former Man Booker Prize Chair of Judges, the judging panel comprised academic members of each subject faculty and high-performing third-year undergraduate students.

Kimberley had to juggle her essay research with School coursework and a busy co-curricular programme. She explained: “Given that I had no prior subject knowledge, I knew this was going to be a research heavy essay and spent most of my time carrying out research.

“Due to this, I ended up starting to actually write my essay on the Sunday and finished it on the Thursday – the day it was due. In hindsight, I would have spaced it out a little bit more but I guess it ended up fine!”

As well as boosting her CV, the competition gave Kimberley an insight into academic study at degree level. “I also wanted to see whether I was good enough to write an essay that would be recognised by not only my teachers but academics from another institution.

“I chose the Law question because I had gained an interest in monopolies from my study of Economics. Additionally, I found the international aspect of the question appealing.”