Debating Success

HGS Debating Society had its first competitive outing of the season on the 6th of December in the ESU Schools’ Mace Debating Competition. We hosted the opening round of this prestigious, national competition, here at HGS and welcomed teams from The Bablake School, Coventry, King Edward VI, Birmingham and MPW College, Birmingham. HGS and Bablake debated the motion that this house would ban all public service employees from wearing religious symbols, while King Edward’s and MPW locked horns on the issue of whether development aid should be tied to the enforcement of population control measures.We would like to thank Anil Sunder and Ayesha Ali for their help in chairing and timing the debates.

The Schools’ Mace is the oldest national debating competition in the UK and has been running since 1957, encouraging the discussion of controversial topics and current affairs. Former winners of this competition have gone on to become MPs, well-known journalists, senior lawyers, prominent scientists and captains of industry. Competitors develop their knowledge of key, contemporary issues while enhancing their speech writing, public speaking and analytical skills. These skills were very much in evidence in both debates and, at the conclusion of these very competitive debates, the adjudicator congratulated all involved on the mature and thoughtful manner in which they had argued their cases. In the event, only two teams could go forward to the next round and they were the teams from HGS and Bablake. The school was represented by Vikram Patel from Year 11 and Gabriel Dobrashien Yates from Year 10.  It is a testament to the skill, passion and commitment of both speakers that they succeeded in this first round of a national competition against older and generally more experienced teams and we wish them well in the next stage of the competition.

If you would like to get involved in debating, whether at a recreational or competitive level, then come along to the Debating Society which meets at 3pm, in the music room, every Tuesday. We welcome everyone and you don’t have to speak in every debate. Speakers are currently needed for the Oxford and possibly the Manchester University debating competitions and will be chosen on merit by their peers.