The John Byrne Award encourages 6th year students to think about the values that are most important to them. It then challenges these young adults to express those values through a painting, a poem, a play – or any other creative output of their choosing. The stimulus this year was the Proclaimers song , ‘Letter From America’ and 47 Teams entered from schools across Edinburgh. The panel of judges, included John Byrne, Richard Holloway and Joyce McMillan. Our winning Team of Andrew, Caitlyn and Rachel delivered a “conceptually spot-on piece of work that encouraged a profound discussion of the students’ values surrounding social justice and national identity in today’s world.” and won a highly commended second place. It was such a close call that this year the panel changed the arrangements to create the Highly Commended placing.