Runshaw’s inaugural Philosophy Cup is a huge success!
Last term, almost 60 Year 9 and 10 students from local high schools came to Runshaw for our first Philosophy Cup competition run by the A Level Philosophy and RS departments.
The competition is inspired by the national ethics cup in which the Runshaw team has won the Manchester regional for the last two years running. It encourages constructive, respectful dialogue and discussion rather than being a traditional debating competition, this was certainly on display between the teams competing.
The competition is unusual for an outreach event in that it required a good deal of preparation from the schools prior to the event to select and prepare their teams, however it was clear that all teams came well versed on the arguments they were going to put forward. The cases featured topics on the A Level Philosophy and Religious Studies specifications taught at Runshaw, covering questions such as, “could a machine ever be conscious?”, “should we eat animals?” and “do miracles provide good evidence for God’s existence?”.
The group stages were hard-fought with a wide range of arguments on display. Penwortham Girls’ High School and Greenbank High School topped the leaderboard on points as first and second place respectively. The standard was incredibly high in the final with some very complex philosophical points made by both teams and excellent responses to some very challenging judges’ questions. Unbelievably, the scores resulted in a dead tie, with Penwortham Girls’ High School taking the trophy based on their scores in the group stages.
All schools had a great time and are keen to return next year to do it all over again. The cup relies on a huge number of volunteers of current and former ethics cup team members who came back to college especially for the day, one even provided online tutoring to teams in the run up to the event! As the teacher of the winning team remarked, “Thank you again for putting on such a fantastic day, the students got so much out of it and are still celebrating! Please pass on our thanks to your students too, they were wonderful hosts and judges, and have inspired some budding philosophers“.
Find out more about A Level Philosophy and Religious Studies by clicking below.
Published by: MU
