The Third Year interform debating competition is underway, with the final taking place after half term.
“There has been a lot of detailed and thorough research conducted by teams, who have not only quoted relevant organisations such as YouGov, NASA, and PEGI, but also deeper thinkers like Thomas Hobbes, Noam Chomsky, and Rene Descartes,” says Mr Paterson.
The motions in the group stage have been “This house believes we should ban violent video games”, “This house believes the voting age in the UK should be lowered to 16”, “This house believes single-sex schools are good for education”, “This house believes space exploration is a waste of money”, and “This house believes that developed countries have a higher obligation to combat climate change than developing countries” – selected by Mr Powell, Mr Hodge, and Mrs Carey from a shortlist provided by Mr Paterson.
Each form has been assigned their position on each motion – for or against – and has faced off against the other five forms, while each debater is judged on the content, style, and strategy of their three-minute speech.
Mr Paterson adds: “The standard of competition so far has been very high, with some excellent points of discussion on each side of every debate. The highest individual score so far is Semiloore Bankole (pictured), who was awarded 23 out of 25 marks for his speech in the debate about single-sex schools.”
“It has been incredibly impressive to see the amount of effort that has gone into learning about the five topics so far from students that have represented their forms in debates and also their classmates who have helped with research and preparation before each fixture.”
Mr Paterson
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