TBSHS Speakers Debate in London

Imperial Juniors

Interschool competitions at Imperial College London are, with the exceptions of Finals Days at Cambridge or Oxford, the most challenging events for our debaters. Nevertheless, three TBSHS teams, drawn from Years 9 and 10, set off at 7:30 am in good spirits. We arrived at Imperial in good time to find ourselves taking on 45 other teams, all from the independent sector, in their junior event.

After some lengthy announcements from the organisers of the event, the first debate “This House Believes that environmental activists should focus on positive messaging regarding climate change as opposed to negative messaging” finally got under way. Year 9 students Noah Brown & Felix Evans had to speak second in support of this motion. In his first competition in the British Parliamentary format, Felix fulfilled his role admirably, expanding points made by the preceding team for the motion and adding a new argument about the way that positive messaging encourages investment in any project.

In his summary (or Whip’s) speech Noah rightly took issue with the Opposition’s assertion that positive messaging is more likely to contain fake news than negative messaging and identified the relative effects of reward and criticism as a key point in the debate. This was an impressive performance that earned the relatively inexperienced TBSHS pair second place, ahead of teams from the always formidable St Paul’s Girls School and King’s School Canterbury. Dan Carlin & Thomas Leung of Year 10 fared even better in their room, winning against Haberdashers, Latymer Upper and King’s Canterbury.

Unfortunately, Oisin Compton (Year 10) & Calum Tait (Year 9), opposing the motion, were given fourth place in a debate won by another team from St. Paul’s Girls.

 Noah, Felix and Thomas

After the first round, teams are placed in the same room as those with a similar record in earlier debates. As luck would have it, Thomas & Dan’s victory propelled them into a clash with the eventual winners of the whole competition and an Eton team that came third overall. Closing the case against the motion “This House, as a UK upper middle-class parent, would send their child to a private school”, Dan produced some good counters to the claims of earlier speakers for the motion, reminding his opponents that good GCSE results, by which they seemed to set great store, do not guarantee success in the job market 20 years later.

As the Whip, Thomas questioned whether the benefits of private education were sufficient to justify the expense. However, new arguments are not allowed in summary speeches so this good argument could not be credited and TBSHS was awarded fourth place. This fate was also shared by our other two teams, although Mr Wagstaff felt that Noah & Finn were particularly hard done by.

However, our students were not dismayed by this triple whammy and, fortified by their packed lunches, demonstrated their resilience in the third round of debates, when they all had to open the case that social media have done more harm than good. Calum produced a well-structured speech, explaining why over-reliance on social media has reduced people’s control over their own lives, exposing them to cyberbullying and receiving inappropriate content and responding well to a point of information from one of his opponents.

Dan, Calum & Oisin

He was well backed up by Oisin, who countered Opposition arguments effectively by showing why they were outweighed by the harms Calum had mentioned. Their efforts earned them a strong second place, very close to the winners, a placing matched by Thomas & Dan, who beat Haberdashers’, but were just behind Wellington College. Felix & Noah were placed third, ahead of Tonbridge, in a debate won by an Eton team.

In the final standings, Dan & Thomas finished in a very encouraging 21st place out of 48 teams, with Noah & Felix finishing 39th, just ahead of Oisin & Calum, who were 41st. I felt that they all did our school, and the state sector as a whole, proud in a tough competition. Many thanks to them and to Mr Wagstaff for giving up most of a day in the cause of TBSHS debating.