Wye School students were delighted to emerge with the titles of Overall Best School and Best Speaker under Questioning from the Canterbury Youth Parliament debating competition held at Canterbury Christ Church University this week. The team of five students were competing against ten other schools from the Canterbury area which included selective and independent schools. Please take a look at the article in this weeks Kentish Express.
The team took part in an open debate forum discussing issues on the theme of Young People in 2015. Maggie Larsen, Eva North and Maddison Exell argued passionately about mental health issues and how schools need to raise awareness and promote supportive attitudes towards young people experiences. Later, in a more traditional debating format, Elliot Carlton, Samuel Powell and Eva North argued for the motion: ‘An unelected head of state should have no place in 21st century Britain.’ All participants took questions from the floor, other schools and the independent judges, senior lecturers and politicians. Elliot Carlton was awarded Best Speaker under Questioning as a result of his performance in this session.
As an establishing comprehensive school, with only years 7 – 9, this was Wye School’s first foray into debating so we were delighted to win against more experienced and, in some cases, much older opposition.