Pembroke North Essay Prize 2020 Winners Announced

The winners of the Pembroke North Essay Prize for 2020 have been announced. The North Essay Prize is an annual competition for Year 12 students studying at state schools in the North West of England. Essay title questions were submitted by the Pembroke JCR, and all entrants received feedback from a Postgraduate marker.

Essays were submitted in three categories- Humanities, Science and Social Science. Entries were typically extremely strong across the board, with a very high overall standard of writing for our markers to choose from. Essay titles included questions such as ‘Should scientific research for the sake of research be carried out, even if it has no direct benefit to humanity?’ and ‘Are governments justified in infringing some fundamental rights to respond to crises such as Covid-19?’ The prize for category winners was a £100 book voucher, and a £50 voucher was awarded to runners up.

An online celebration evening for all entrants, plus parents and teachers, was held on Wednesday 14 October. Participants heard an academic lecture from Dr Peter Claus (Access Fellow), an introduction to Oxford University from Kirsty Simpson (Admissions Officer), and took part in an open and informative Q&A session with some of our undergraduate students.

At the end of the event the winners and runners up in each category were announced.

Humanities

Winner: Issie Tooher, Stretford Grammar School

Runner Up: Macy Tyrer, Ballakermeen High School

Science

Winner: Tamanna Mumin, The Blue Coat School

Runner Up: Sophia Iankova, Ballakermeen High School

Social Science

Winner: Tom McBride, Wilmslow High School

Runner Up: Molly Heywood, Ashton Sixth Form College