Students celebrate after three good wins at debating contest

The Henry Cort Community College took part in the PiXL Up for Debate competition along with 35 other schools from the region including Swanmore College and Bay House School.

Year 8 and Year 9 Henry Cort Community College students Kiara Taylor, Mia Madgwick and Lucie Tarr represented their school in three debate categories with the first two speeches pre-prepared on ‘This House proposes we should tax junk food’ and ‘This house opposes returning national treasures to their country of origin’.

For the third debate students were given 20 minutes to prepare with no assistance on ‘This house opposes the legalisation of assisted suicide’.

The Henry Cort Community College took home wins for all three debates and placed third in the overall competition.

English teacher Mrs Annandale said: ‘Our strengths were rhetorical skills, presentation skills and structuring of speeches.

‘The students were so enthusiastic and really enjoyed the day.’

The three girls were supported by Year 9 student Ellie Brooks and Year 8 student Ryan Badger.

Up for Debate is a unique oracy programme for secondary schools that has been running for two years.

As part of the curriculum, the students have a Debating Across the Curriculum booklet with ideas on how to adapt debating format to subjects including history, geography and science.