Lytham St. Annes Ancient Worlds Competition 2025

Lytham St. Annes Ancient Worlds Competition 2025

We are pleased to announce that Michaela Jana, sixth former has been selected

joint winner of the International Competition. The judge was Prof. Sharon Marshall

(University of Exeter). Michaela receives GBP 50 eq. and a handsome certificate. This is

a considerable honour. For at least the past four years the prize has been won by the

European School in Tbilisi, Georgia, which upholds standards of education that far

surpass those of Malawi and the United Kingdom. That Kamuzu Academy is mentioned

in this context is something that will serve to restore confidence to those who

teach and study the Classics in Malawi.

The competition organisers “Lytham St. Annes Classical Association (Lancashire, England)” is the

largest branch of the Classical Association of England and Wales. It was established by Katrina Kelly

in

2014 when she herself was still at school. She remains Chairlady and is now prominent

also in the work of the Classical Association at national level.

In 2022 Kamuzu Academy was ‘commended’ in the International Competition (Nicole

M’manga, Mwayi Ngwira); in 2023 ‘highly commended’ (Natasha Chilima). We did not

submit an entry in 2024. Katrina has been supportive throughout. It need hardly be said

that Kamuzu Academy is the only school in Africa to participate.

This year the theme was: ‘Which ancient myth fascinates you the most and why?’. In the

first of our preliminary rounds we invited all pupils in the third and fourth forms to

submit essays and / or posters as vacation ‘coursework’. Thirty-six responded, which is

fewer than we had hoped but still an improvement on previous years. Of these, seven

were invited to record videos. We chose Michaela Jana’s existentialist reading

of Sisyphus to represent Kamuzu Academy. It may be accessed at:

https://youtu.be/APjuVvGqJgI

Well done, Michaela!