On Saturday 21st January our four Cheney teams of Year Nine Debaters did a fantastic job preparing motions and making thoughtful, interesting speeches in front of people they had never met before and in a venue that many could find quite daunting. The Oxford Union felt fairly subarctic with mist emerging from the students as they spoke, but that didn’t hinder our teams get off to a good start!
There were 32 teams competing from nine different schools (only two of which were state schools), and so the competition was fiercely fought. Our students were consistently friendly, polite and considerate, and everyone contributed sensitively and thoughtfully to their three different debates.
The first motion was pre-prepared: ‘THW (this house would) place a 50% quota on women in parliament,’ which saw two of our four teams achieving a first place! The second motion was 'THB (the house believes) that tiger parenting does more harm than good,’ and the third, 'THW ban zoos'. These motions were not known in advance, so the teams had to prepare their arguments in fifteen minutes before each debate.
Unfortunately, this time, none of our teams broke through to the international final, but they all left after the final debate asking me when they could next do a competition - so this hasn't affected their enthusiasm!
Dr Lorna Robinson
Director, The Iris Project (Charity No. 1121868)
& Rumble Museum (Accredited Museum No. 2418)