2025 competition
2025 competition
The 2025 School Essay Competition, organised in partnership with the Financial Times, invited students to answer the following question:
What are the implications for different countries of international trade policies in the contemporary world?
Our 2025 awards
Winner
Sylvester Parmar-Wickham from Fortismere, Muswell Hill
Highly Commended
Caitlin Arthur from St Mary’s Catholic School, Newcastle upon Tyne
Peter Atanasov from Queen Elizabeth’s School, Barnet
Rhiannon Green from Bristol Grammar School
Jonathan Heen Long Shiu from Westminster School
Noah Houston from Sevenoaks School
Tristan Jones from Kirkbie Kendal School
Rose Pasteur from Norwich High School for Girls
Anastasia Tymoftey from The Heathland School, Hounslow
Ruijun Ye from Shenzhen College International Education, China
Congratulations to the winner and highly commended entrants. Well done to everyone who participated – we received some amazing entries.
There will be an awards celebration at the Society for the winner and highly commended entrants, with their teachers and guests, in the afternoon on Monday 13 July 2026.
The judges were looking for:
- A clear essay or ArcGIS StoryMap that was well-evidenced and reached a clear conclusion.
- Submissions that did not exceed 1,000 words (excluding references).
- Referenced sources of information and data.
- Submissions that were the entrant’s own work and relevant to the question and guidance.
The Society runs this competition in partnership with the Financial Times as part of its education programme to support geography teachers and their pupils. The competition is open to all schools and advertised through our wide networks. Submissions are judged without seeing the entrants’ details.
