Meet the best young philosophers in Dorset and Hampshire

A team of four boys from Harewood College outwitted 12 other teams from schools across the region at a philosophy competition held at Wildern School in Hampshire.

Using their combined brain power, Reuben Tyler-Wilkinson and Dean Wedderburn from Year 7 and Bertie Deakin and Huseyin Dural from Year 11 were crowned champions at the hotly contested Philisothon.

The celebrations continued when Reuben received the individual award for most promising male philosopher in his year groups.

And there was some more good news for the school’s trust, when fellow student, Mina Rice, from sister-school Avonbourne College, won the individual prize for most promising female philosopher in her year groups.

Executive headteacher for both Harewood and Avonbourne colleges, Debbie Godfrey-Phaure, said: “The boys and girls who represented Harewood and Avonbourne colleges have done our schools proud.

“We are all thrilled that they have picked up the best team and two outstanding individual awards in the Philosothon competition.”

The competition aims to raise the profile of philosophy for children in schools and develop the skills of debate and questioning in secondary school students.

Each team held discussions on three topics included ‘evil and suffering and free will’, ‘the use and abuse of modern technology’ and ‘is it wrong to be a bystander?’.

The discussions were witnessed and scored by philosophy undergraduates from Southampton University and one of their professors.

Harewood College’s team scored the most combined points to win the best overall team prize.

Mrs Godfrey-Phaure added: “At Avonbourne Trust we challenge our students all the time to think of the bigger picture and our place in the world’s community so I’m not surprised at all we have students who can take on testing topics with aplomb.”