Bishop Luffa Debating Society entered the English Speaking Union (ESU)’s Schools’ Mace competition, which is the oldest and largest debating competition for schools.
The first round of the competition was in November. Our team was told to prepare a debate opposing the following motion: This house would ban the use of digital manipulation in advertising, including social media ad content.
In the lead up to the event, the team, researched the key issues; wrote speeches and practised the debate. The team we were opposing didn’t attend the debate. Whilst this was hugely disappointing as our team had put so much time and energy into preparing, the good news is that we have automatically gone through to the next round, which will take place in January.
The ESU judge allowed the students to present what they had prepared and gave feedback, which was overwhelmingly positive. Ben Webster (10Sherborne) was told his presentation was ‘near perfect’.
The students involved were Alex Gyopos-Cooke (12Wilson), Joel Blamire (10Wilson), Ben Webster (10Sherborne), Rupert Reddington (10Otter), Ella Saxton (12Sherborne), Grace Zheng (10Ridgeway), Isla Dodson-Richi (10Story) and Hannah Carr (10Sh).
Mrs J Sherlock, 2nd in charge of English