Junior Debaters

Congratulations to our Junior School pupils who triumphed at their first debating competition beyond South Hampstead.

Sixteen pupils from Year 6 ventured to Brighton College Prep to compete in the Handcross Juniors debate contest. Despite being their first ever competition outside South Hampstead, let alone London, the girls deployed their listening, argumentation and critical thinking skills to great effect. All our pupils engaged with a range of challenging motions such as the banning of professional combat sports, whether or not Generative AI usage should be encouraged in education, and on giving stay-at-home parents a salary. By the end of three rounds, Eliana and Elodie qualified to compete in the Silver Final and went on to win, demonstrating clarity and structured thinking throughout. Well done to all our competitors on their excellent performances.

South Hampstead pupils develop debating skills from the Junior School through to the Sixth Form as part of our commitment to ensuring young women find their voice. The school’s oracy provision was recently highlighted by ISI inspectors as a significant strength: “Pupils’ public speaking skills are highly sophisticated… this has a considerable impact on pupils’ learning and personal development.” Read more.