House Debating Finals 2016

by Vashti Turner  on March 24, 2016  in  House Competitions

The semi-finals of house debating took place on Thursday 17th of March, with every form group putting forward a team. The combined scores of each house were calculated in each year group, and the highest scoring houses progressed to the finals. On Wednesday 23rd March the finalists of House Debating met to debate the motions ‘This house believes that anyone under the age of 16 should be banned from Instagram’ and ‘This house believes Britain should leave the EU’.

The first debate saw year 7 finalists from Honeyball and Franklin discussing the merits and dangers of Instagram whilst debating the motion “This house believes that anyone under the age of 16 should be banned from Instagram.” Aya (7 Lennon), Musa (7 Lennon) and Mia (7 Hepburn) from Honeyball argued the proposition, and Louiza (7 Baker), Aiesha (7 Matisse), Tyra (7 Baker) and Revan (7 Matisse) represented Franklin as the opposition.

The second debate between Year 8 Pankhurst and Angelou saw students debating the very current issue “this house believes Britain should leave the EU.” Charles (7 Fitzgerald), Leah (8 Simmons), Melos (8 Jobs) and Maisie (8 Simmons) represented Angelou as the proposition, and Sara (8 Berners-Lee), Milan (8 Balon), Fatima (8 Berners-Lee) and Rene (8 Balon) represented Pankhurst as the opposition.

With some members of all four teams being experienced debaters, these were extremely well researched and eloquent debates. Miss Hitchcock and Mr Benson were joined by KAA Governors Mick May and Emma Wills to judge the all-important final. The final scores of both rounds were very close, with Honeyball winning the Year 7 debate and Angelou winning the Year 8. Both houses were awarded 1000 house points for their efforts, with the runners-up taking 750 house points.

A huge thank you must go to parents for their time and effort rehearsing debating speeches this half term. Congratulations to the Angelou and Honeyball teams.