Congratulations to the team of Junior Debaters who won all four of their debates in the open rounds of their competition, which put them through to the Octofinals. This is only the second time in 16 years that one of our junior teams has got this far! The adjudicator was impressed by their speaking skills and ability to marshal arguments to challenge the opposition's case. The debaters learned a lot from the experience and enjoyed competing with students from other schools. Their success was particularly impressive as several of their debates this year have been run on an online platform. The speakers were Jamie Pett, Mannat Kaur, Lubaina Bohra, Bryan Binuraj and Annie-Mae Cochrane.
"Debating was an interesting experience. At first I just went in because a lot of my friends were joining, which could make it pretty fun. Instantly the whole club was captivating. There were a lot of stressful times but working cooperatively and gaining speaking confidence really gave me a whole new skill set." - Jamie Pett
"One thing I enjoyed during the debating experience was the amount of cooperation between me and my teammates. We all did our very best to try and win the whole thing, but getting into the octofinals was still a huge milestone for us! I can't wait to get back out there next year and try to surpass our place from this year." - Bryan Binuraj
"Debating was an amazing experience. At first I was very nervous and struggled to enjoy it but as the season went on I came out of my shell! It was not only the actual debates that were fun, but also the meetings where we discussed a range of topics, expressed our opinions and learned new skills that we will use forever." - Lubaina Bohra
