Our Senior debating team have had a busy start to the New Year, competing in two exciting tournaments this month, the Cambridge Schools and the ESU MACE Schools debating competitions.
Shreya, Lydie, Hannah, Olivia, Sophie and Charlotte participated in the Cambridge Schools debating competition, one of the biggest schools debating competitions in the world.
The wide-ranging field of debating topics required the teams to think on their feet. For example, they had to argue for the first motion that it was preferable that the US was in decline, and subsequently, for the next motion, that material happiness should not be prioritised over immaterial happiness.
Senior pupils Sophie, Darcey and Ellen also competed in the second round of the ESU MACE schools debating tournament.
The English-Speaking Union’s Schools’ Mace is the oldest and largest debating competition for schools in England. Working in teams, students enhance their speech-writing, public speaking and critical thinking, helping them to excel both in and out of school and giving them a sense of pride in themselves and their achievements.
In the first round, the Bromley High team competed with the motion of ‘This house would make fines for criminal and civil offences proportionate to the wealth of the offender’ and qualified for round two. Their second debate was about the motion ‘This house would ban gambling’ and as the government, their job was to argue for the motion against Eltham College. Sophie, Darcey and Ellen argued the stance that gambling is an addiction that was being abused by corporations who were using misleading advertisement campaigns as well as targeting lower socio-economic areas.
Altogether, three debates took place and the Bromley High team advanced to the third round in February. Good luck to the team!
“I really enjoyed the conversations we had with other teams after the debates whilst waiting for judges to return.”Shreya, Year 10 pupil
