At the beginning of the month, on Thursday 1 February, four of our pupils represented Shiplake at the Oxford Schools’ Debate Contest. Run by the Oxford Union, Oxford Schools' is the largest British Parliamentary school-level debate competition in the world, and the largest debating competition in the UK, which is aimed at students aged 14-18.
Mr Player, who organises and runs the debating society at Shiplake, said:
The Shiplake debate team of four - Year 13's Hugo Palmer-Garrett and Emily Banks, and Year 12's R Goggins and T Sanders - did a wonderful job of representing the school in the local heat for a chance to compete at the Oxford Union. Up against a huge number of local schools, they participated in the online event on Thursday. The topics were 'social media activism does more harm than good' and 'media that glamorises criminality should be banned.' They had only 15 minutes to prepare for each topic before the debate began.
Although they did not break through to the final, we are really pleased with all the work they did. Public speaking and thinking on your feet like that is super challenging and we are proud of them for all their efforts.
This is not the first time that we have seen our pupils take part in a debating contest. Earlier in the academic year, in November, we were delighted to welcome Cheltenham Ladies College for a debate fixture. It was a wonderful event where the quality of discussion and debate was incredibly high, and you can read about that event here.
