Boys and teaching staff gathered, fittingly, in the school library on Wednesday 1 May for the awarding of this year’s Fowles Prize and The Archie Wellbelove Prize, and to celebrate the winners of the Detweiler Competition.
The former, named in honour of the illustrious Old Bedfordian author John Fowles (39-44), requires Sixth Form boys to produce a substantial and engaging essay. In a setting decorated with Fowles’ novels, it was most fitting to announce the 2024 winner of this prize. Lower Sixth Former Pui Lam Ng, who wrote a rigorous and well-thought out essay to address the question; ‘Some claim that modern communication platforms, such as Zoom, and the work-from-home revolution will lead to a decline of inner cities. Do you agree?’
Pui Lam explained after receiving the prize, “Working from home is definitely the trend nowadays and I believe the Government should tackle this working from home problem by giving more support to inner city development. This essay gave me the opportunity to expand on this subject and explore other subjects such as economics, geography and maths, which are also related.”
The Archie Wellbelove Prize is open to boys in the first three years of the Upper School and involves the submission of pieces of writing related to texts read outside the curriculum. This gives boys a wonderful opportunity to share their thoughts on a novel or piece of writing that they feel particularly passionate about. This year, Fourth Former Max Middleton was awarded this prize for his fascinating review of a book series called One Piece.
Also recognised at the awards were Fourth Former Noe Simplicio, who won the Detweiler competition in February for his heartfelt and moving piece titled Gran, and Fourth Former Lukas Collins, whose descriptive poem Life and Death was awarded runner up.
Head of English Mr Nicholas Hopton commented, “The English Prize Giving is one of my favourite events in the calendar because it gives us a chance to share and celebrate boys’ creativity whilst inspiring them to go from strength to strength as both readers and writers.”
Sadly, teacher and writer Ron Berger, who was invited as guest speaker, was unable to attend due to illness, However, he left the boys with the following message:
“I want a classroom full of craftsmen. I want students whose work is strong and accurate and beautiful. Students who are proud of what they do, proud of how they respect both themselves and others.”