The House Debating Competition officially launched with the Year 13 teams kicking off the competition. The title of the debate was ‘Child Poverty is not acceptable in the UK,’ which tied in with the Focus Week on the issue of child poverty.
All students showed their debating skills, particularly when countering points made by the opposing team. All teams also included excellent research, quoting facts and statistics, as well as emotive anecdotal evidence.
The judges, Jane Mackenzie (Chair of Governors), Gillian Findlay (School Governor) and Helena Cresswell (school librarian) were very impressed by the quality of the debating teams.
Overall, Johnson House was the winning team (Olivia Fox, Naomi Fisher, Felix Emanuel and Ben Fairchild). They did particularly well as they had arguably the more challenging side of the debate to present, debating against the statement.
Olivia Fox from the Johnson team was chosen as one of the most valuable debaters. Meg Mathias from Darwin House was also chosen as one of the most valuable debaters because of her ability to respond directly with counter-arguments.
The team from Darwin came second place, with Garrick and Seward coming third and fourth, respectively.
Helena Cresswell, school librarian, said, “We were all very impressed with the teams, but particularly with Olivia for the way she handled her side of the debate, and Meg for her thorough preparation. Well done to all.”
