Six Fareham schools took part in a battle of wits to determine who would be this year’s schools debating champion at my second schools debating competition.
Boundary Oak School, Brookfield Community School, Cams Hill School, Fareham Academy, Henry Cort Community College, and Portchester Community School each selected a team of two Year 8 pupils to debate at Fareham College today, while dozens of other pupils and teachers watched on eagerly.
The teams debated a variety of topical issues and thought provoking issues, with one team proposing a motion and the other opposing. This year’s motions included:
- This house believes that Religion helps society
- This house believes that Brexit will be good for young people
- This house believes that social media is harmful
The six teams were then assessed on three criteria including content, strategy and style and awarded points for the delivery of their arguments.
Following careful consideration by the judges, Erin Harris and Molly Banger of Brookfield Community School took home the crown of Fareham schools debating champion, followed closely by Portchester Community School in second and Cams Hill School coming in third.
Erin, Molly and their teacher, Steve Mander, have won a trip to Westminster and a tour of Parliament with special tickets to watch politicians debate at Prime Minister’s Questions.
Taylor-Jayne Rowe of Portchester School won ‘Best Speaker’ and will also be attending PMQ’s with the other competition winners.
The standard of debate was really impressive again and is getting better each year! All of the pupils who took part should be immensely proud of themselves. They showed they have excellent public speaking skills and were able to put forward strong arguments. I look forward to seeing Erin, Molly, Taylor-Jayne and their teachers in Parliament soon.
I would also like to say thank you to Fareham College for hosting this year's competition and students Anjella Stevenson and Bethan Findly for kindly taking and editing the photos.