On Saturday 13 March, Lower Sixth students Allegra Sheen (M) and Ellie Jordan (M) took part in the first day of the Oxford Schools’ Debating Finals. 130 teams from the top British and International schools made it through to Finals and the competition was fierce. Allegra and Ellie represented the College admirably, presenting their opinions articulately and with authority. This year they were not successful at progressing to the Quarter Finals but they are determined to try again next year.
Here Allegra and Ellie reflect on the competition:
“Throughout the day, we argued four motions with only 15 minutes to prepare for each one. The motions were:
- This house believes mass tourism does more harm than good in developing nations
- This house believes that schools should teach more life skills (eg cooking and driving) at the expense of academic subjects
- This house would ban the media from reporting on a terrorist attack in the immediate aftermath
- This house regrets the emphasis placed on personality in politics
We opposed the first two motions, proposed the last two and we placed in a range of positions throughout the day in each motion, learning something new and developing our arguments further in each one.
It was a really great opportunity, and required quick thinking and strong logical reasoning through our arguments. We unfortunately did not get through to the overall finals on Sunday but nevertheless, it was a great learning experience and we recommend it to anyone who would like to push themselves in debating!”
