Schools’ Essay Competition 2025

COMPETITION WINNERS 2025

COMPETITION WINNERS 2025

Senior Politics and Society:

Lydia Davenport

Junior Politics and Society:

Deepak Yuvaraj

Senior French Politics and Society:

Noah Kelly and Roshan Gurjar

Junior Spanish:

Alys Gilmore

Senior Spanish:

Seb Puddick, Sofia Beed

Mandarin Art and Culture:

Jojo Zeng

Senior German Art and Culture:

Nicholas Harding-Smith

Junior German Art and Culture:

Hari Gumbeer

Junior French Art and Culture:

Yeva Mnatsakanyan

Senior French Art and Culture:

Nina Ren, Poppy James, Anna Rothwell

Russian Art and Culture:

Sam Chadwick

A note from the Editors-in-Chief…

First of all, we would like to thank you for entering the fourth annual Cambridge Language Collective Schools' Competition! We have thoroughly enjoyed reading all of your submissions, there was such a breadth of ideas and innovation across a wide number of languages and cultures, and it was refreshing to read such thought-provoking and high-quality pieces. The levels of accuracy, style and enthusiasm were extremely encouraging and it is truly fantastic to see such talent at such a young age.

We would like to re-iterate our congratulations to each and every participant. Please keep in touch with the CLC on our socials where you can continue to be updated on everything we get up to.

Wishing you all the very best going forward!

With warmest wishes,

Soraya Shakibi and Alex Brian

Co-Editors-In-Chief 2025/26

We extend our sincere gratitude to the academics who generously dedicated their time and expertise to marking essays for this year’s Schools’ Essay Competition. Your thoughtful feedback and support not only ensure the success of the competition, but also inspire the next generation of thinkers and writers.

Rebecca Fell, Zuzanna Witkowska, Emilia Wilton Godberfforde, William Huddleston, Hugo Azerad, William Kirby, Victoria Fendel, Walden Wu, Hannah Eastbury, Kitty Liu, Anastasiia Petrenko,

Rebecca Fell, Zuzanna Witkowska, Emilia Wilton Godberfforde, William Huddleston, Hugo Azerad, William Kirby, Victoria Fendel, Walden Wu, Hannah Eastbury, Kitty Liu, Anastasiia Petrenko,

With many thanks to the following Cambridge academics