To coincide with our focus week celebrating UK Parliament Day, Year 12 House teams debated the question – Is the UK Parliament broken?
Teams presented opening and closing statements in support of their arguments. During the middle segment of the debate they were able to challenge the points made by the opposing team and make counter-arguments.
The independent judges were school governor Michelle Painter and guest judge Carrie Jahn, who works at the Spires Care Home. School Librarian Helena Cresswell served as moderator. Teams earned points based on making solid, supported arguments and rebutting the opposing arguments. Marks could be lost for interrupting or repeating a previously made point.
The final results were:
1st Place: Johnson with 86 points
2nd Place: Darwin with 82 points
3rd Place: Seward with 51 points
4th Place: Garrick with 37 points
There were some very strong individual performances so it was a difficult decision to choose the most valuable debaters. However our independent judges ultimately chose Josh Bramall and Tom Williams as ‘Most Valuable Debaters’ for their strong contributions.
Other student participants were Louis Caldwell, Izzy Foster, Sophie Turner, Thomas Hughes, Warwick Smith, Adam Leeson, Fran Freeman, Jonny Fowler, Abbie Elson, Corey Overton, Tom Porter, Georgina Broome and Toby Morris-Samuels.
Mark Drury, Assistant Headteacher, said: “Making a coherent argument based on evidence and research is an important skill. The contentious course of British politics in recent years gave our students opportunity to debate a key question facing society. It was great to hear them discussing democracy, history and how ‘the people’s will’ can be interpreted in various ways.”
