Acing Mace!

Earlier this month a group of students from our thriving debate club took part in the first round of the prestigious ESU Mace debate competition.  Our team competing on the day were Joel Blamire (13Wilson), Ella Blamire (10Ridgeway), and Ben Webster (13Sherborne) who were up against local rivals St Philip Howard. 

Each heat features up to three debates. Motions and positions are provided in advance to give teams a chance to prepare and research their argument. The position and order for the teams and others in the heats are randomly assigned to ensure fairness. The order can be adjusted by the competition lead on the night if necessary, and in fact on this occasion this did happen, and our team suddenly found themselves going first.  Our team put up a very strong opposition argument to the motion “This house would ban short-haul domestic flights where transport alternatives exist” and received brilliant feedback from the judges. 

The team were excited to find out that they had done enough to progress to the second round which should be held in January. We will receive a new motion to debate for or against and we will have a new trio to take part with the support of the rest of the team. We have put ourselves forward to host which would be a fantastic opportunity for the whole school to celebrate our dedicated debate team.

Katie Pegram, Second in Charge of English - KS3 Lead