A huge congratulations to our team of Sixth Form students who competed in and won the National Ethics Cup Final at St Andrew’s University yesterday. This is the first time Trinity School in Croydon has entered the competition, and we were thrilled to win the regional heat earlier this year, and over the moon to win the final after months of preparation.
The Ethics Cup is run by the Philosophy Department of St Andrew’s University to ‘promote interest in Philosophy among secondary school students and civil discourse on issues of public concern’.
Mrs Beresford-Miller, Head of Religious Studies and team leader, reports back:
The Trinity Religious Studies Ethics Cup team had an intense and challenging day at the National Ethics Cup Final at St Andrew’s University yesterday. Facing off against the best teams in the country, we prepared to debate ethical issues such as, ‘is cheating in computer games acceptable’, ‘should paid surrogacy be banned’ and ‘should people who shoplift to feed their families be penalised’.
We faced an excellent team from Allerton High School in the first match where we discussed the issues arising from outright tobacco bans and won the round 3 votes to 0. Next up in the group stage was Arnold Hill Spencer Academy who put us through our paces whilst debating the ethics of participating in dog meat eating in China. Again, we put forward strong arguments and handled some difficult questions to win the match 3 votes to 0, taking us through to the semi-final.
The competition really stepped up a level here and we faced Exeter College, who were wonderful opposition debating their case on shoplifting brilliantly. Luckily, we put forward fantastic arguments on the topic of forming relationships with AI chatbots and won the match 2 votes to 0, the third judge awarding a tie.
The final was set for a match of the two top performing teams on the day; Manchester Grammar School and Trinity. Although MGS put forward some strong arguments about the morality of issuing a state of exception, our response to their argument as well as our own presentation on voting with your conscience were enough to earn us a stunning victory. We won the match 2-1 with the judges praising not only our outstanding knowledge and discussion skills but the clearly positive team spirit.
Mrs Beresford-Miller says, “I am so proud of our team of Ayaan, Tom, Rahul, Megan, Caitlin and Dhyan, not to mention the Upper Sixth students who helped us win the regional but couldn’t attend due to A Levels: Barney, Abi, Fred and Sophia and our reserve member, Mia. Our St Andrew’s team showed such strength of character to calm their nerves and discuss complex issues with admirable maturity and skill. It was a genuine pleasure to work with them in the months before the competition and to see all that hard work come to fruition with some wonderful debating skills. To win after such stiff competition was an added bonus to a thoroughly enjoyable experience.”
Congratulations all!
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