The Headmaster's Challenge 2010/2011

This year’s competition deadlines are Monday December 6th for the submission of your entry form (end of Advent term) and Friday 18th February (the Friday before half term of Lent term) for submission of the finished piece.

What is the Challenge?

• Your challenge is to produce a project (junior section years 6-9), or an extended essay/project (senior section 10-13) on a multi-discipline, cross-curricular subject for submission to the judging panel. The junior competition will be judged within the school but the senior competition judges have in the past come from the university and professional worlds (including Dr Rachel Mulvey, Head of the Centre for training in Careers Guidance at the University of East London).
• This is a competition so you will need to be ambitious.
• You set the subject matter, but it will need to show sufficiently detailed research, depth and detail to win.
• The project for juniors should be the equivalent of a 1000-1500 word essay, and the senior essay will need to be approximately 1500-2500 words long.

Why is this activity useful?

• You have the opportunity to take the initiative in how you work.
• You choose the subject to reflect your own interests and areas of expertise.
• You organise your own time and develop your ability to work independently.
• You have the opportunity to go beyond the limitations of single subject study, and to talk about what really interests you.
• Being the school’s senior essay prize-winner and being judged by a panel of academics will not only result in material gain of a prize, but also could enhance future application to higher education, particularly in UCAS applications where signs of extra study can enhance perceptions of students as genuine scholars.

To be successful you will need to show:

• Depth of understanding
• Evidence of detailed and systematic research
• Engagement with the material
• Evidence of independent study skills
• Evidence of argument/discussion in the quality of the finished piece
• Awareness of cross-curricular issues
• Confident and developed communications skills

You can ask your teachers and parents for advice and suggestions, but you should not expect them to direct you in your work – this is a test of independent working.

How to get going:

• Firstly identify the subject that you want to research and write upon – subjects that require you to use detailed research are more likely to fit the criteria for judging.
• Allow time to generate a range of ideas, and set yourself a realistic target for completion – you will need to organise your time since this competition is supplementary to all of your other school work.
• Round one – you have to submit a 300-500 word outline (of what you would intend to do) to Mr Griffin by the Monday December 6th. It should include your subject choice, the areas to be explored, an outline of the research to be done, and an idea of the final piece’s presentation. He will inform in due course the 10 who have been selected to go forward to the next round of the competition.
• Round two – the ten finalists will then work on their projects over the first half of the Lent Term and submit the finished pieces for judging on the Friday 18th February.
• The winner will be announced by the headmaster in assembly and prizes will be distributed.
• Last year's winners were Eleanor Higginson (Junior) and Lena Saraj (Senior).

If you have any questions you should ask Mr Griffin, who will be happy to advise you and give you an entry form (or you can download one via one of the links below).

The Headmasters Challenge:

Junior:
Junior Entry Form
Junior Project Outline

Senior:
Senior Entry Form
Senior Project Outline