The Start of the Debating Season 2024
The Debating season started with great success at Round Two of the ESU Mace Debating competition last week. A Year Eleven team of Hannah Agoston, Joseph Kington and Orla Hession-Wilson travelled to Wycliffe College where they debated with pupils from schools and Sixth Form Colleges from around the West Midlands. They were arguing in favour of abolishing the House of Lords and replacing it with an elected senate, and were very convincing in doing so, progressing to the Regional Final. Now only one more round stands between the team and the National Finals in London.
Then, on Saturday, four teams from RGS competed in the Cambridge Schools Regional qualifier. All four teams were successful throughout the day, securing several 1st and 2nd place finishes. The topics ranged from opposing authoritarian regimes to removing Trump from the ballot in 2024. Individual speakers also performed incredibly well, with Callum Lockett adding to his success in this competition last year by finishing 8th in the speaker table out of 130 debaters! We are very proud of each team’s achievements across four debates in a long and challenging day of Debating.
Finally, RGS also competed in the Oxford Schools competition. They debated two motions: ‘This House Opposes the glorification of long-term relationships’ and ‘This House Would abolish academic streaming in secondary schools’. Each team received glowing feedback from their judges, commending their reasoning and persuasive arguments against strong opposition from schools from all over the country.
We now look forward to the Nottingham Schools competition where we hope for similar levels of success.
Mr Bennet Ager, Head of Debating