Shrewsbury debaters secure a spot in the final of Cambridge Schools’ Competition

On Saturday the first of March, members of the School Debating Team took part in the regional round of the Cambridge Schools’ Debating competition.    

The day certainly proved to be a long one. It involved four rounds of vigorous debating, each more competitive than the prior. Although the competition was conducted online, the intensity of the arguments still managed to capture the debating spirit. 

There were three pairs of debaters representing Shrewsbury School this year, all of which exhibited great talent and enthusiasm. Very well done to Violet R (EDH, LVI), Bella SB (MSH, LVI), Lulu G (QEH, V), and Elsa L (M, V), for their applaudable participation. And it’s a pleasure to announce that Matthew W (SH, LVI) and Alanood A (MSH, LVI) have succeeded in progressing to the finals.  

It was a considerable challenge competing against capable debaters from other schools. The fact that we only had fifteen minutes of preparation time before every round certainly added to the difficulty of composing coherent speeches and developing detailed arguments. Despite that, all teams managed to deal with the pressure impressively, as proven by the respectable results everyone got. Three of our debaters ranked among the top 30 speakers, and our winning team secured second place overall, only two team points behind the first place and a solid 8 speaker points ahead of third.   

The motions we debated were also quite diverse in nature, ranging from the more philosophical topic of whether the dominant narrative should be that humans are inherently good or flawed, to the more political one of whether control of post-colonial states should be decentralised to regional leaders. Engaging with such a variety of topics certainly helped deepen our knowledge and reshape our perspectives.     

Matthew and I look forward to representing the school in the next round of debates at Cambridge, bearing in mind the insightful feedback we’ve received in the last round.    

A special thanks goes to Mr Bandy for his invaluable training and unwavering support throughout the regional rounds. 

Alanood A