St. Clare’s sent two crack teams of debaters to the latest round of the Oxford Schools debating competition on 4 February at Cheney’s school. Caitlin Russell, Nye Rhys Potter, Kristijonas Pajeda & Elizabeth Cass did battle with a huge number of schools including Abingdon, Magadalen & Eton.
In pairs, they debated in British Parliamentary format which is modelled around the system in Parliament. The teams are only told the motion 15 minutes before the debate begins so they have to be quick-witted, highly fluent and, occasionally, ruthless as they defend their hastily erected positions.
The motions were a call to support the forceful outing of gay celebrities and for schools to be legally bound to ensure their student populations mirrored the local population.
The specific scores for each debate are not released but the Oxford University debaters organising the event were full of praise as well as useful advice for our students who are all hungry for more opportunities.