On Wednesday 29 January, the St Mary’s Debate Team travelled to Queen Elizabeth Hospital School in Salisbury to take part in the second round of the English Speaking Union (ESU) Mace Debate Tournament. The competition was comprised of three debates, involving six teams, including our hosts, QEH Bristol, the Collegiate School, South Wiltshire Grammar School, and Bishop Wordsworth Church of England Grammar School. Only two could progress to the next round.
Anna St, Olimpia C and Ayo K took speaking roles in a debate against Bristol Cathedral Choir School, opposing the proposition that “this House believes that globalisation perpetuates inequality.” Liana O, Candy D and Coco F took a supporting role in the debate, helping their teammates develop their arguments and providing questions for speakers in the other two debates that took place during the four hour event. Their engagement in this process earned the school valuable points in the competition.
The St Mary’s team had spent weeks researching their debate topic and shaping their arguments in the upper school Debate Club. This was evident in the well-crafted speeches that each speaker delivered and the confidence with which they were able to challenge the points made by the opposing team.
The standard of the debate was very high and both teams engaged in many rhetorical tactics to enhance their arguments. The St Mary’s students demonstrated swiftness of thinking when dealing with points of information from their opponents and questions from the floor. They bravely took themselves out of their comfort zones to speak on a challenging subject for a prolonged time and they earned praise from the judges for the quality of their arguments and the depth of supporting detail that they used to support these arguments. All members of the team contributed to the other debates, asking insightful questions on the subjects of the ethics of copyrighting music and the necessity of increasing the price of fatty foods.
The high quality of the contributions made by all teams gave the ESU judging panel a difficult job. It took them 40 minutes of deliberation to reach their final judgement. Despite St Mary’s scoring highly on the judging criteria, they were pipped to the top two places by just two marks. The South Wiltshire Grammar School and Bristol Cathedral Choir School won the competition and moved on to the regional round. T
he St Mary’s team received individual feedback from the judges and were satisfied that a tough competition had provided them with an experience that they will use to develop their debating and public speaking skills. They should be proud of producing an excellent team performance and making the judges’ task of picking the winner such a difficult one.
Mr Adrian Stoten, Debate Team Co-ordinator and Teacher of History