This has been an incredibly busy fortnight for our Senior Debating Team! Find out what we’ve been up to below:

South Hampstead High School Debating Tournament

On Tuesday 29th November, our Year 11 Senior Debating Team (myself, Emily, Sophia, Kate, Ava and Inaaya) had the delightful opportunity to participate in a MACE style debating competition held at SHHS. It was an exciting opportunity, with 24 London School Teams participating over the two different age categories.  Despite the support of my peers, I was still slightly nervous due to the fact it was competitive debating tournament. The experience was thrilling and rewarding and I felt honoured to be part of the Francis Holland Debate team. My team and I won 2 out of 3 of the debates, receiving constructive feedback after each. Being able to listen and hear my peers debate in such a well-trained, confident, and professional way was truly inspiring and energising. I was honoured to represent Francis Holland School, and I’m eager for the future debate opportunities.

Alexia Abecassis, Year 11

ESU MACE

On Tuesday 22^nd November, our ESU MACE Team took on St Paul’s Girls’ School, debating on the motion ‘This house would have educational policy set by education experts rather than politicians’ (Proposition – Francis Holland School, Sloane Square. Opposition – St Paul’s Girls’ School). The five girls on the team – Kate, Emily, Phoebe, Inaaya and Zara – demonstrated dedication, enthusiasm, resilience and drive.

Emily started the debate extremely strongly on the nature and intentions of “self-motivated, self-centred and ideologically controlled politicians”, and was met with an incredibly challenging argument and rebuttal from SPGS based on Abraham Lincoln’s “by the people, for the people” maxim and the intricacies and superiority of democracy over epistocracy (the exercise of power by unelected experts). Inaaya did a wonderful job with a POI on the merit of “good policies” over “popular policies’” and “continuity” instead of the “in/out” nature of politics”.

SPGS’s second speaker focused on “accountability”, using evidence from the 2008 EU Fiscal Policy and the critical implications of this being implemented by “unelected experts”. The focus was on how unelected experts are not voted in and so cannot be voted out. Kate shut down SPGS’s points on accountability in stating that politicians “cling to conventions” and that they fail to understand that education is more than just exams, learning facts, and policies, and that creativity, problem solving and thinking outside the box are far more valuable (a shout out to FHS!). Kate further focused on the many benefits of a more or entirely “technocratic system”. Inaaya was our summary speaker and successfully addressed questions from the floor and summarised all the key arguments researched and developed by the entire team (Phoebe, Zara, Kate and Emily), ending on the importance of “continuity and care, over constant meddling” and the overall proposition that educational experts should set educational policies, not politicians.

Unfortunately, we have not progressed through Round 1 of ESU MACE. It was very unlucky to come up against such strong opposition in our first round. The adjudicator stated that it is the ‘strongest round’ he has judged so far, and that had it been a different round, different teams would have progressed! What a great effort though. Onwards and upwards!

Miss Wigdahl, Teacher of Theology & Philosophy and Debating Club Leader

 LSE Schools’ and Warwick Schools’ Debating Competitions

These last two Sundays, we have had three teams entered into the LSE Schools’ and Warwick Schools’, both British Parliamentary style Debating Competitions. They were both extremely long, but rewarding, days.

LSE is typically one of the most competitive 1-day tournaments in the school’s calendar, and so our girls all acquitted themselves very well given the strength of the field. Ava and Gioia had an absolutely brilliant debut to the world of competitive debating! They started very strongly on two consecutive 2nds in Rounds 1 and 2. Anya and Inaaya were faced with some incredibly tough competition at the start of the day but they came back to get 1st, 3rd and 1st in the subsequent rounds –  they were one of the highest ranked novice teams there on Sunday, only narrowly missing out on breaking to the novice final. Emily and Kate put up a good fight working tremendously well as a team, showing resilience, determination and composure throughout the entire day.

Warwick was similarly competitive. Inaaya and Phoebe formed a strong alliance, winning a very competitive opening round on the motion ‘THW not read fairy tales to children’. Emily and Sophia formulated a strong argument, referencing works of Klimt and Van Gough on the motion: ‘This House Supports the recent trend of targeting valuable artwork as a form of environmental protest.’

We are so extremely impressed by the enthusiasm, dedication and drive that our Debating Team show, both in our training sessions and at weekends in competitions.

Miss Wigdahl, Teacher of Theology & Philosophy and Debating Club Leader