Over seventy pupils from eight SSLP schools met with great anticipation on Thursday 13th June for the SSLP Debate Mate Final at Kingswood Arts. Many of the schools taking part had previously had the opportunity to work with a designated Debate Mate mentor in their schools over the last few months. They were adept at techniques such as PEEL to develop their arguments, and POI to request an interruption to the speaker to make a point.
The day started with some practice motions with the pupils having to move across the room to show their own standpoint on the issue in question. It provided an energetic warm up to get them ready for the start of the competition. In the first few rounds of the competition, there were three motions debated: this house would break the law in order to save the environment; this house believes everyone should go to university; and this house believes that humans should focus on building a civilisation on another planet.
After a tense wait as the points for each round were added up, it was announced that the two successful teams to reach the final were The Charter School North Dulwich and Westminster City School. The final motion was: this house would use AI to make political decisions. There were fantastic listening, debating and oracy skills on display by every pupil as well as a wonderful atmosphere of respect towards each other. In the end, the opposition team, The Charter School North Dulwich were declared as winners. Congratulations to their team! Pupils from St Joseph’s and The Charter School East Dulwich were also awarded prizes as ‘Questions From the Floor’ winners. One of the pupils said, ‘I have thoroughly enjoyed the event. The evident hard work of everyone is really commendable and the standard of debating was so high. It has been great to connect with other schools and we are suggesting a few friendly re-matches with them at some point. Please do wish us luck!’
We were delighted to be joined by guests Jean Stevenson, Ali Miraj and Carole Seawert from the Worshipful Company of International Bankers (WCIB). Sharing closing comments Mr Miraj said ‘I hope that everyone that has been here today regards themselves as a winner because what you have done here is going above and beyond. This will actually count in your futures and it will count in your careers – the public speaking skills that you’re getting, the knowledge that you’re developing, the team work and camaraderie is something that will set you apart from your peers as you go forward in your lives.’
We also thank the fantastic team at Debate Mate for all of their support of debating in SSLP schools this year.
