High quality debating technique in the first knock-out round of the In

November 20th 2023

Debating House Activities and Competitions

High quality debating technique in the first knock-out round of the Inter-House Debating Competition...

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Blackford vs New
The first knockout stages of the Inter-House Debating Competition started with a very topical motion on whether awareness days/ months are not fit for purpose, and instead, inclusion and diversity should be celebrated in our everyday lives. Blackford had the hard job of proposing the motion, but both New and Blackford had prepared well. There was plenty of evidence of thorough research, as well as both teams predicting the arguments the other team would put across. The arguments were thorough and well thought out, and both Houses used Points of Information well to unsettle the other team. It was fantastic to see both teams look to try and move away from prepared scripts, with members of both teams trying to demonstrate very good debating technique. A special mention must go to Sebastian and James of New House for an outstanding debate. Whilst Sebastian fixed the audience with great stage presence and thorough research, James showed fantastic oratory skills to win the audience over. A high-quality debate in which New House triumphed.

Dan Cupit - Deputy Head, Academic

Arion vs Lyon
Once again it was a superb debate between Arion and Lyon focusing on the topic of awareness days, weeks and months. Arion were proposing the motion that these are too tokenistic and Ellie, Izzy and Abi argued this exceptionally well. They used a lovely metaphor of these days, weeks and months being like fireworks which Dr Corrigan and I really liked. Lyon opposed the motion extremely well with Ben, Adam and Joe suggesting that we wouldn’t want Christmas every day so why would we want Awareness Day every day. In the end it came down to the rebuttal with Arion just having the edge by coming back to the main argument more and we awarded Lyon with 39 points to Arion’s 40 points. The standard of the debate was extremely high and Dr Corrigan and I thoroughly enjoyed having the opportunity to adjudicate it.

Emily Simper - Deputy Head, Pastoral