Last weekend, after qualifying through to the finals of the International Competition of Young Debaters (ICYD), Year 9 pupils Fifi and Georgina were both given the amazing opportunity to debate at the Oxford Union.
The competition consisted of four rounds, in which they were able to discuss a wide range of topics with motions such as, ‘This house would legalise the buying and selling of human organs’ and ‘This house would nationalise the pharmaceutical industry’. Their favourite motion was, ‘This house supports the illegal property destruction of major polluters’. They opposed this motion and managed to come up with some interesting points relating to both the ethical and economic concerns of both sides of the argument.
Overall, they found the experience extremely rewarding and found the judges’ feedback to be particularly useful for future competitions.