Last Saturday, a team of our finest Emanuel debaters competed in the South London Regional round of the Cambridge Schools Debating Competition. This prestigious event took place at Ibstock Place School and involved over 100 speakers from 15 schools.
The format used, the British Parliamentary (BP) is modelled loosely on the debating style used in the House of Commons. There are four teams in every debate, each team composed of two speakers. Two teams (four speakers) argue in favour of a policy while two teams (four speakers) argue against it. Each debater speaks only once, and the sides (proposition and opposition) take alternating turns giving speeches lasting five minutes. The four challenging motions on the day were: This House believes that criminal sentencing should be guided exclusively by rehabilitative principles; This House proposes a world where there has always been a single dominant religion; This House regrets the glorification of Luigi Mangione’s actions and This House would allow fans to veto player management decisions by sports clubs (e.g. signings, selling, and trading). Students were allowed 15 minutes preparation time.
Emanuel 1 (Isabelle O and Verity G) battled their way through the four rounds and in the process secured a place at the top table! As newcomers to the world of interschool competitive debating and having no experience whatsoever of the BP format, this was a quite astonishing achievement. They managed to defeat, amongst others, Ibstock A, Dulwich A and Winchester College.
Emanuel 2 (Zara B and Nicolas K) also acquitted themselves magnificently with two highly impressive second places, defeating opposition from Reed’s, Wellington and Westminster.
Needless to say, we have been inspired to enter more debating competitions and continue to make our mark in this most intellectually challenging of co-curricular activities.
Mr S Andrews, Senior Tutor
