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Debating and Public Speaking
This year pupils have written and delivered literally hundreds of speeches and every week there is something to watch, participate in or prepare for. One of the most memorable celebrations this year was the Debating Dinner which, despite being postponed due to bad northern weather, was a jubilant evening of debate, prizes, quizzes and song. It was good to see the 90-strong House vote that ‘Romance Is Not Dead After All.’ New for this year was the OP debate and we welcomed three former captains back to debate three of our finest senior debaters on the motion ‘This House would be a teenager forever’. The OPs took the debate but it is safe to say that St Peter’s was the winner on the day! We look forward to this being a yearly fixture. Finally, we were honoured to be given a Highly Commended in the ESU Oracy Awards and were one of only three secondary schools recognised. When added to last year’s ESU Debating Culture Award it is heartening to see that our regional profile and outreach are both developing and being recognised nationally.
DEBATING SOCIETIES
The Debating Societies would not run without the Debating Committee whose weekly meetings ensured weekly debates. Senior debates covered topics as diverse as debating the gold standard, a round of Would I Lie to You, a Valentine’s Day Just a Minute and a subject balloon debate where RS/Philosophy was crowned St Peter’s top subject. The juniors met weekly to eat biscuits and engage in round table discussions ranging from the Irish border to vegetarianism.
COMPETITIVE DEBATING
This year saw an expansion in our engagement with national debating competitions. As with last year we ran workshops and hosted the first round of the ESU Mace competition, with our team progressing into the second round. We were delighted to use the Pascal Building for one of its first outreach events by hosting the regional round of the Oxford Schools. Almost 50 teams competed in a busy and intense evening of debate. Ethan McKinney and Ewan Henworth made it through to the Oxford final where they enjoyed a fantastic weekend of debating and improved their regional rankings. The juniors also had some exciting fixtures and, whilst losing away to an excellent Queen Mary’s team, they won The Alcuin debate v Ampleforth for the second year. Thank you to all of the staff who have supported this endeavour and our new coach-helper Joey Dottore.
THE INAUGURAL OP V THE SCHOOL DEBATE
HOUSE COMPETITIONS
House Debating was, once again, fiercely contested with Queens taking the senior title in a gripping debate against Temple. The junior final saw two Boarding Houses face-off to debate with The Manor emerging victorious against Dronfield. Thank you to all the pupils who spoke, helped with organisation in their Houses, or chaired debates on the day and to the staff who judged debates with care and attention to excellent feedback.
PUBLIC SPEAKING
The in-House Competitions reached their fourth year with Niamh Machin winning for the juniors with a speech on diversity in Hollywood and Ethan McKinney speaking about mental health; a speech he went on to deliver to the whole school during Chapel. New for this year was our engagement in local and national competitions. We started the year with the York Civic Trust Competition. Next on the agenda was the ESU Churchill Competition where we ran workshops and hosted a regional round which saw one of our teams progress into round two. Well done to all of the public speakers and special thanks to Mr Miller for leading in this area.
Ms Laura-Louise Pearson
