Autumn Debating

The start of the academic year has brought with it an exciting array of debating events across the school.

With each of our five weekly debating clubs and workshops gaining in popularity, the girls continue to show their willingness to speak up and speak out. Jane and Nadia, our most senior debaters, have been running a weekly debating club at the Junior School with the help of Year 10 and Year 11 students. This has been highly successful as we spread our girls’ exceptional enthusiasm for debating to the youngest members of our school community.

The first competitive event of this school year was the Women’s Open, hosted at St. Paul’s Girls’. This event, aimed at novices and less experienced debaters, provided an ideal platform for eight of our newest debaters to practise their skills. We also brought seven of our more experienced debaters to participate as supporting judges, a role that they approached with real commitment. All of our new debaters performed brilliantly and we look forward to watching them flourish over the course of this year.

Beyond this, we hosted three teams of debaters from University College School for a two-round friendly event, with Michael Hepburn and two other professional judges providing expert feedback. The event involved nine UCS students and twenty-one South Hampstead students. Two teams of our girls – Nadia, Lara and Charlotte and Megan, Libe and Eliza – were the only teams who won both of their debates, which was an excellent achievement.

We look forward to the forthcoming ESU Mace, the Joutes Oratoires (a debating competition in French), LSE Schools, the ESU Public Speaking Competition and our own Friendly Debating Competition. With so much on the horizon, it is sure to be an action-packed and exciting end to the calendar year.