For a long time, schools in the local area have lacked opportunities to get together for the purpose of debate. This Monday evening, Katherine Warington School was proud to host the first inter-school debate competition we have seen in a long time! We invited Roundwood, St George’s and Sir John Lawes to come and compete with us.

Well done to Sophie H, Dom W, Helena R and Flo C in Year 8 for absolutely fantastic work in preparing for their debates and for getting up there in front of an audience to face rebuttal from the other teams. Sophie and Dom were arguing for homework and made articulate arguments about how all students should have opportunities to fulfil their potential at school and homework helps them to do that. Whereas Helena and Flo were arguing for a sugar tax. I was especially impressed with some of the points made about how the government could use a sugar tax in the short term to improve education around healthy eating and exercise.

Thank you to the teachers for getting their teams organised so that students could participate in these lively debates. We also wanted to say a special thank you to Lucy Bacon, Producer and Journalist at LBC. She attended to lead the judging panel and present prizes to the winners at the end.

We look forward to another opportunity to compete in the New Year as it was clear that all schools felt the opportunity for inter-school debate was welcomed.

Mrs Aikman