TBSHS Debaters Finish The Season In Style

TBSHS DEBATERS FINISH THE SEASON IN STYLE

 

Girls’ Day School Trust

For the first time, the Senior (Year 10 & above) and Junior GDST competitions ran in parallel at South Hampstead High School, regarded as one of the top debating schools in the country. In the Juniors, Noah Brown, Joshua Tsang & Calum Tait, all experienced speakers, were joined by Year 8 students Stan Wadsworth (in his second interschool event), Sam Greenwood & Ben Nosworthy (both making their representative debuts). They were up against 21 predominantly female teams, mostly drawn from independent schools, in three preliminary rounds.

The motions debated were:

“This house supports the removal of all like/share/comment counts from social media”

“This house would require a quota of MPs to be under the age of 30”

“In a world where intelligent extraterrestrial beings exist, this house believes that it would be good if they came to earth”.

Our three teams achieved remarkably similar results, each winning two of their debates (including victory over a South Hampstead team) and placing third in the other. Consequently, in the overall table, they were separated only by individual speaker scores. Sam & Stan finished in second place, with Calum & Joshua fourth and Ben & Noah fifth.

The Junior GDST speakers, L-R:  Calum Tait, Noah Brown, Sam Greenwood, Joshua Tsang, Stan Wadsworth, Ben Nosworthy

The top four teams then went onto a grand final, where Joshua & Calum had to speak first against the motion, “This house believes that children should be raised to believe that they can be anything they want to be”, with Stan & Sam closing the case for it. Both pairs spoke very well, but were unable to claim the victory, although one of the judges told Calum and Joshua that they had run the winners close.

But that wasn’t the only success achieved by our students. Schools were asked to bring debaters who could act as assistant judges and Year 10 students Felix Kenyon-Muir & Thomas Leung had come along to fulfil this role. However, when the organisers announced that a Senior team had pulled out at the last minute, Thomas & Felix volunteered to take their place, despite never having teamed up as a pair before and the fact that they would be competing against some teams of Sixth Formers. They proceeded to take two second places, on motions concerning the research, writing and teaching of history and the desirability of TV shows with an optimistic rather than a cynical view of politics. In addition, closing in favour of the motion “This house would allow prisoners to volunteer for drug trials in exchange for a lighter prison sentence”, they recorded a clear victory over the other three teams in their room. They placed third out of 24 teams but, like the juniors, were unable to claim a victory in the final, where they had to debate the ‘trolley problem’, an ethical dilemma well known to students of Philosophy.

Felix Kenyon-Muir & Thomas Leung  

As if this wasn’t enough, Finlay Stewart of Year 8 enjoyed a spectacular day. With Felix & Thomas otherwise engaged, he was required to act as an assistant judge in the first two rounds. Then he volunteered to team up in the third debate with a student from another school whose partner had been taken ill. Finally, he was invited to help adjudicate the junior novices final because his clear thinking and insightful comments had impressed the organisers so much. Raphael Tsang (Year 13) came to watch his brother debate and ended up acting as a one-man team for a round and Miss Chilcott, George Sellwood & Leo Parry (the latter two as junior reserves) all gave up their time to support our speakers.

This was one of our most successful days interschool competition that I can remember. The TBSHS students of all ages impressed everyone present by their enthusiasm, the quality of their response to opposing arguments and their readiness to step up and take on extra challenges at very short notice.

Bingham Competition

The Bingham Team

Five days later we returned to South Hampstead High School for another event, also with simultaneous Senior & Junior streams, but this one restricted to state school students with limited debating experience. Even by these standards, our teams were very new to interschool competition – all four members of our Year 12 team (TBSHS Munro’s Marauders) only started debating in September. Charlotte Brown was attending her first interschool contest, while Evie O’Flaherty, Emaelia Elliot & Mehmet Turner had each represented the school only once before. In TBSHS Wagstaff’s Warriors (our Year 8 team), Stan Wadsworth had debated for the school twice, Finlay Stewart & Sam Greenwood once each and Harry Walters was making his debut.

In the first round, both our teams had to oppose the idea that the TV series “The Big Bang Theory” had been good for the neurodivergent community and won their debates. Munro’s Marauders were praised for their clear analysis of the motion and Wagstaffe’s Warriors demonstrated excellent teamwork and a range of strong arguments. For subsequent debates, Seniors & Juniors had to tackle different motions. In the second round, the former proposed that working from home should become the norm and their superior engagement with their opponents’ arguments helped to earn them another victory.

Year 12 speakers Charlotte Brown, Evie O’Flaherty & Emaelia Elliot 

The Year 8s also won, arguing that pursuing a stable, well-paid career is better than one that you love because you will be able to provide better for your loved ones and retire earlier to enjoy life.

So both TBSHS teams reached the lunch interval undefeated, but knowing that the afternoon would be more challenging, as they would be drawn against teams with similar results. This certainly proved to be the case in the third round for the Juniors, who were unable to convince the judge that cheerleading (not an activity about which they knew very much) is good for feminism. However, the Sixth Formers were successful in opposing the motion “This House believes that the feminist movement should prioritise encouraging women to do things traditionally seen as masculine”, mainly because they pointed out that there are other more important things for feminists to concentrate on, especially in many less developed countries. Their last preliminary round was effectively a semi-final against Sacred Heart School from Hammersmith. TBSHS had to propose that citizen journalism does more harm than good and felt that they had slightly the better of the contest. Unfortunately, the judge did not agree because she felt that the Opposition had presented a wider range of credible arguments. Nevertheless, the team had exceeded my expectations, demonstrating very pleasing levels of confidence and debating knowhow throughout the day.

Not to be outdone, the Junior team returned to their winning ways, supporting parents’ use of spyware to monitor children and defeating Bexley Grammar School. So both our teams recorded a win rate 0f 75% and coincidentally both ended up in 7^th place out of 34. Once again, a TBSHS travelling reserve stepped up at short notice to help the organisers. Mirko Kacsor (Year 12) volunteered to join students from two other schools to form a ‘swing’ team that won half its debates. In the one that I watched, Mirko was clearly the best speaker in the room. Many thanks also to Mr Patterson, who helped to transport, observe and advise our teams and to Ben Nosworthy (Year 8 reserve/supporter).

Year 8 speakers: Stan Wadsworth, Finlay Stewart, Sam Greenwood, Harry Walters and Mirko  & Mehmet Yr 12.

So another successful year of competition ended on a high, strengthening our reputation as a force to be reckoned with in interschool debating. Over 30 students represented TBSHS in at least one competition – many thanks to them for all their hard work during long days and to the parents who often had to get up very early to get them there on time.

A.D.Fraser