LSE Debating Success

A group of our young debaters took to the stage at the London School of Economics this weekend with impressive aplomb, scooping top prize in the novice category.

The LSE hosted a new debating competition, exclusively for pupils in Year 10 and under, with an experienced group of judges and organisers who made it an engaging and constructive day of speaking. Led by Dr Etheridge, our Director of Debating & Public Speaking, and accompanied by one of our English Speaking Union (ESU) mentors,  twelve girls took part, all displaying excellent skills of argumentation and great potential.

With five of our six teams categorised as novices, they were eligible to compete in a separate final, open to the 28 novice teams competing; two South Hampstead teams of Year 10 pupils made it through to compete in the final. The judges voted for Juliana and Eliza as the overall winners in a 4-1 split, with the other judge backing Phoebe and Edie – a tremendous achievement. The girls also received certificates for coming in the top 10 (out of 68 novice speakers) for their total points as individual speakers over the course of the day: Juliana in 9th; Edie and Eliza in joint 5th; Phoebe in 3rd. Congratulations also to Ines (Year 7) and Miri (Year 8) who came 11th, and Nicole in Year 10 who placed 14th.

Finally, our only non-novice pair, Charlotte and Manon in Year 9, was our highest-ranking team, coming 11th out of 72 teams overall, up against pupils from established debating schools. A great start to the year, as we continue to champion oracy and the art of debate.