At the start of the Easter break, four sixth form students competed in the Durham Schools’ Debating Competition, the world’s largest residential school-level contest.
Across Saturday and Sunday, participants competed in five rounds of debating in the British Parliamentary debate format. Each round lasted over 90 minutes and earned each team two points towards their total score. Students with the highest score were eligible to ‘break’ through to the quarter-finals.
Motions explored themes such as the commercialisation of social movements, banning gambling, the censorship of political parts of art, housing assistance programmes vs social housing schemes, and flipped classroom models as opposed to traditional learning. Students were permitted only 15 minutes to prepare their arguments before exploring these motions alongside over 90 other teams from schools up and down the country.
One of CLC’s two teams did indeed successfully ‘break’ - Meagan and Valerie, two SFC2 students, ranked in the top 16 teams and went ahead into the quarter-finals. This round challenged students to explore whether or not awards in creative fields, such as the Oscars and the Nobel Prize for Literature, should be abolished.
Whilst CLC did not appear in the final round, all students enthusiastically agreed that the competition was a fantastic opportunity to further develop their oracy skills and engage intellectually with their peers. In addition to the competition, attendees had the opportunity to explore Durham, tried authentic Lebanese food at a local restaurant and attended Evensong at Durham Cathedral. An exhilarating weekend for all involved!
Miss Davies, Teacher of English and i/c of Public Speaking and Debating
