Fable competition 2023
This summer term concluded our first annual fable competition, the Young Aesopi Contest. Students in their first year of learning Latin were asked to write a fable, in Latin, to enter the contest. The fable should be easy to understand, employ Latin word order and style and have a moral at the end.
Entrants focused on a variety of topics, using animals from the course, gladiators and teachers and students as their inspiration. The judges were highly impressed by the quality of the fables submitted. The very best showed a mature understanding of Aesop, and those who worked in his tradition, including unpredictable endings and wittily or unexpectedly phrased morals. At the same time, the stories that were highly commended stood out for a variety of other reasons: for their grammatical accuracy, the adventurousness of their syntax, the inclusion of illustrations, the entertaining characterisation of the protagonists, or their moments of humour.
We received numerous entries from many schools and would like to thank teachers and students for their hard work in preparing these. Excitingly, Dame Professor Mary Beard agreed to join us for the judging of the short-list and the awarding of prizes. Her comments as well as the winning student entries have been formatted into a special, textbook-style booklet (pictured below). In addition, prize-winning students have been awarded Classical books with bespoke, signed bookplates. All students who wrote a fable have been rewarded with a special LEP coin (we hope to ‘mint’ one of these each year of the programme).
1st prize went to Evie M. from Holyport College, 2nd prize was awarded to Josh D. from Hele’s School and Felicity H. from Barclay Academy received 3rd prize –Congratulations to them all on their fantastic entries!
The judging panel, including Dame Professor Mary Beard.
The winning entries booklet, alongside the LEP coins given for participation in the competition.
