Four Bedford School philosophy students received a Highly Commended award for their video entry in a competition run by the University of Oxford. The Uehiro Centre’s Practical Ethics and Responsibility competition, which was open to students from years 11 to 13, called for teams of students to make a video of themselves discussing an ethical problem of their choice and how they thought responsibility was involved.

Lower Sixth Formers Daniel Bello, Deimis Sukys, Nathanael Hylton and Sami Haroon chose the highly topical issue, ‘What does postmodernism say about the responsibility to vaccinate oneself?’. The boys worked collaboratively and took turns to present their arguments to the camera. Their entry received a Highly Commended from the judging panel, a fantastic achievement in this national competition, where the standard of entries this year “was exceptionally high”, as described by the Uehiro Centre’s project manager. The boys’ entry now features on the university’s website; watch here to find out the conclusions the boys reached.

Religious Studies Teacher Miss Rattab said of the boys, “They combined their philosophical knowledge and applied it to modern day issues surrounding the ethics and moral permissibility of the use of vaccines. I thoroughly enjoyed seeing my students apply their philosophical knowledge outside of a classroom environment. For me, it only cemented the importance of fostering philosophical enquiry in our students, which will prepare them to make informed and reasoned decisions in later life.”

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