The annual competition asks sixth year (17/18) students attending school in Edinburgh to respond to a piece of text, related to the theme ‘Inspiring Values for Today’; and to consider values in the context of the world that they know and live in and to examine and challenge them.
Teams of students and individuals are asked to respond to a piece of text related to this theme, ‘The Stimulus’, carefully selected by the judging panel. This year, in celebration of the 400th anniversary of The King James Bible, the stimulus for the 2011 John Byrne Award is an extract from the King James version - The Sermon on the Plain, from The Gospel According to Luke, Chapter 6, vs 17-49.
The judging panel will look for an independent response to ‘The Stimulus’ that reflects competitors’ thoughts, their study and the conclusions they have drawn, with reason, clarity and imagination. The judges also want to be clear about the values that teams and individuals have chosen, and to be persuaded that they will stand up to the choices that they have made. However students will definitely not be judged on the actual values that they have chosen.
John Byrne was joined on this year’s judging panel by writer and broadcaster Richard Holloway, political journalist and theatre critic Joyce McMillan, former head teacher at James Gillespie’s High School Alex Wallace, Scotland international rugby player Ruaridh Jackson and snowsports instructor Neil Paterson.
Through discussion and consensus they were looking for an independent response to ‘The Stimulus’ that reflected competitors’ thoughts, their study and the conclusions they have drawn, with reason, clarity and imagination. The judges also wanted to be clear about the values that teams and individuals had chosen, and to be persuaded that they would stand up to the choices that they had made. However students were not judged on the values that they had chosen.
For The John Byrne Award there is a total prize fund of £10,000 split between a first prize of £7000 and three special commendation awards of £1000 each.
