The second house debating competition took place this week. This time it was the turn of Year 10 to get stuck in over the topic of bullying – this of course was very well timed as it fitted into our whole-school focus on National Anti-Bullying Week which took place last week.
The key issue for the debate was around whether or not cyber-bullying should be considered the ‘worst’ type of bullying, given young people’s increasing access and reliance on the internet and social media. Regardless of their own actual beliefs, each House had to argue the case for or against following a draw.
The Year 10s who took part were absolutely fantastic and a credit to their Houses.
Darwin took on Garrick, whilst Johnson faced off against Seward (who won the previous round). All teams prepared opening and closing statements and gave some extremely well thought-out views regardless of the side they were going for. Some of the students even had a range of national data on bullying prepared to counter arguments and challenge views from the opposite team, which demonstrated some superb independent research skills.
It was great to have the Sixth Form Learning Mentor, Vicky Fordham, and Senior Students from the Sixth Form, Jack Askew and Olivia Weir, contributing to the adjudication process.
Vicky Fordham said “I have been amazed by the level of preparation that students have put in for the debating competition and by their levels of professionalism in arguing passionately, but at the same time respectfully. It is vital that our young people have the opportunity to discuss something as important as bullying and this debate demonstrated that our students know exactly what to look out for and are well aware of where to go for support should it be needed.”
Huge congratulations to the winning team, Johnson, and to the students awarded ‘Most Valuable Debaters’ Josh Bramall (Darwin) and Elizabeth Short (Johnson).