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Debating is growing increasingly popular in the Sixth Form. There is a weekly club, where there are internal school debates on a wide range of motions. Also in school, are inter-house debating competitions. Last season was busy for the keen debaters who competed at a variety of competitions from Cambridge Union (Julia Fischel and Cathy Corrie broke to the regional finals), Oxford Union (Ems Plews and Fay Lomas broke to the national finals day), and ESU. An exciting new competition which we have attended for two years now is the Durham Union, which involves a weekend of debating - with five different motions - with some of the best teams from both the county, other parts of the UK, and even some from abroad. St Catherine’s has also had sixth form students attending trials for the England Debating Team. About forty people from all over England go to the trials, and the four best debaters there will then form the team who will compete against other nations. The day is a great opportunity to practise debating with different people.
Whatever your level or enthusiasm, there will be a competition to match. Debating is an enjoyable and intellectually-satisfying activity. It also teaches some very helpful skills, such as structuring an argument, or thinking of both sides of a topic, which can be transferred to A-Level courses, as many of the girls here have discovered.
Fay Lomas
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Debating Report 2007-8
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The St Catherine’s debaters have had another successful year, breaking through to the finals and second rounds of a couple of major competitions. The U4-U5 debating club was particularly well-attended in the Autumn and Spring terms and many young debaters are showing real promise for the future. In particular, Harriet Ellison and Peggy Fooks (both U5) are to be congratulated for taking part in three separate competitions, with success: they, together with Jo Matthews and Emily Zaborski (both U5), took away prizes at a local competition at Priorsfield School. Harriet’s speech on the influence of American culture in UK society was well-received by the judges at the English-Speaking Union Public-Speaking competition, whilst Peggy and Florentyna D’Souza (U5) provided skilful back-up as Questioner and Chairman respectively. And finally, Harriet and Peggy, together with Rosie Townshend (L6), carried off two prizes at the Ripley and Send Rotary Club debating competition. They had their work cut out with a complex debate on immigration.
At Sixth Form level, two very strong debating teams have emerged in the L6th: Fay Lomas and Ems Plews, and Cathy Corrie and Julia Fischel. Cathy and Julia managed to break to the second round of the Cambridge Union competition as novices. Both teams broke to Finals Day in the Oxford Union competition. Ems and Fay also took part in the Observer Mace debating competition, arguing that we would be better off if sites like Facebook had never been invented. Fay was selected to trial for the England Debating Team and learned a huge amount from her experiences at Dartmouth House, the headquarters of the English-Speaking Union.
Perhaps the highlight of the season was the Durham Debating Competition at the end of March. Fay was unable to attend but Ems was very well supported by Francesca Kapfer-Gill (U6). The two teams, along with Mrs Bingham and Miss Jeans, travelled to Durham by train, frantically preparing a motion on international sporting teams. This was not exactly the teams’ or Mrs Bingham’s area of greatest expertise! They spent the first night in Hildebede College and went round the cathedral in the morning. The competition started in the afternoon and was intense, to say the least. After an exhausting week-end, the teams were both very satisfied with their performances, especially Ems and Francesca who were placed 20th in the whole competition, and one of the top girls’ teams in the country.
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