A blog by Amy Read, Whitley Academy Head Girl.
Thursday 10th March was the date of the 'Frankly
Speaking Debate', in which myself, Imogen Foley, Louise Ainge, Tayla Twigger and Pavani
Konda were apart of in London.
After an early start (06:15 at the train station), we were
on our way to the Benjamin Franklin House for the first 2 heats of the
competition.
We were split into two teams, Years 10 & 11 with Louise
and Imogen, and Years 12 & 13 with Pavani and myself (Amy- the Head Girl). After
the train ride and the first of many underground rides, we arrived at the
historic house which seemed like the Tardis at first, as from the outside it
appeared quite small but inside it held a great deal of history.
The first debates were underway and we were on the
opposition of ‘This house would reverse the recent decision by the British Fertility
Regulator to allow human embryos to be modified’. The other team had
logical and valid points as to why we shouldn’t reverse the decision, but they
ventured off way too much into the possible future of modification, whereas we
kept to the statement and argued why only a small group of scientists were
granted permission to modify the embryos.
For the second half of the debate, the Years 10 & 11 groups
had the statement ‘This house would levy a tax on all high-sugar foods’.
Louise and Imogen debated really well opposing the tax considering it was a
hard statement for or against.
The scores were totalled up and both of our teams had made
it through to the semi-finals.
We were all aware of the statement for the semi-finals
before the day but we did not know whether we would be for or against it. The
statement read ‘This house believes that any American over the age of 18 should legally
be allowed to buy a hand gun without restriction’. Though every team was hoping to be on the
opposing side, which Pavani and I luckily were, Louise and Imogen were on the
proposing side. Pavani and I had some hard hitting facts about the real dangers
that hand guns in the US possess, but the opposing side were also correct in
their points about the protection that guns give to the citizens of the US.
Unfortunately, none of our teams from Whitley had made it to
the finals; however, we had come very close. Nonetheless, we were still able to
watch the finals at the US Embassy, London.
We had to take our passports, and go through airport-style
security to enter the Embassy and wear passes during our stay. The finals took
place in a small theatre, where the debaters sat at tables on the stage. We only
had a small amount of information on what the subject for the last statement
would be, only when the finalists were announced did they give the statement:
‘This house believes that over the next 70 years, the special relationship between
the US and the UK will grow stronger.’ The first team from Seven Kings
High School, London were great at proposing for the statement and made valid
political points about the past relationships we had had. The other team from
The Studio, Liverpool were good, but one of their team mates seemed to crack
under the pressure of an audience.
Seven Kings were the overall winners and one
of their team mates won a 3 week trip to Washington DC.
All in all, the day was amazing. I learned so much about the
extended mace debating style that we used and how to debate properly. I also
enjoyed looking into the topics that we had to debate as it made me more aware
of current events in the world and media. Hopefully we will return next year
knowing fully well what is expected and the level of knowledge needed to back
up our points and try to catch the other teams out.
