On Thursday afternoon, nine Lower 6 pupils went on a trip to The Perse School in Cambridge to participate in the MFL Eastern Region Year 12 Debate.

In Spanish, French, or German they debated topics such as the banning of songs with derogative language, inclusive writing in the French language, and the relevance of traditional family in today’s diverse society. The teachers were really impressed by their performance and confidence in discussing such relevant topics solely in a foreign language for 15 min each round.

Pupils who attended were - Sara Bertea, Henry Aldous, Sophie Bush, and Ella El-Naggar for French; Finney Harrod, Samuel Wang, and Matthew Hudson for German; and Jacob Gandy and Emily Clarke for Spanish.

With thanks to our French Language Assistant Nina Maniaque-Nagano, Spanish teacher Mrs. Jovana Zujevic, our intern Liza Galeazzi and Anne Kaeschel (German Language Assistant) for accompanying them!

Below, the pupils involved give their own account of the day, firstly auf Deutsch, followed by the English translation:

"Am 9. März sind neun extrem kluge Schülerinnen und Schüler nach Cambridge für den „The Perse MFL Debattierwettbewerb“ gefahren. Sam sagt, dass es eine gute Erfahrung war, denn er hat gelernt, wie er sein öffentliches Sprechen verbessert. Er mochte besonders die letzte Runde, in der er über das Thema „Mode und Image ist stressig“ diskutiert hat und er denkt, dass er und Finney ausgezeichnet argumentiert und sehr viele überzeugende Punkte erwähnt haben.

Auch Finney denkt, dass die Debatte in Cambridge sehr interessant war. „Ich war zufrieden mit mir in der zweiten Debatte, Matthew und ich haben diese Runde mit einem schweren Thema gewonnen. Alles in allem finde ich, dass die Debatte eine gute Erfahrung für mich war!“

Matthew kommentiert die Debatte mit den Worten: „Am Anfang waren wir ein bisschen nervös, aber mit jeder Runde verbesserten wir unsere Argumente und wir wurden immer selbstbewusster. Es war ziemlich frustrierend, dass es so knapp war, denn uns hat nur ein Punkt gefehlt. Jedoch war es insgesamt eine sehr nützliche Veranstaltung für unsere Sprachfähigkeiten. Wir sind stolz, dass wir uns der Herausforderung gestellt haben!" 

Translation

"On 9 March, nine extremely intelligent pupils went to “The Perse MFL Debating Competition” in Cambridge. Sam says that it has been a good experience as he learnt how to improve his public speaking. He especially liked the last round in which he discussed “Fashion and Image are stressful for pupils” and he thinks that he and Finney argued brilliantly and made very convincing arguments.

Finney thinks that the debate was interesting as well. “I am very content with my performance in the second round which Matthew and I won, despite it being a difficult topic. All in all I think that the debate has been a good experience for me”.



Matthew comments on the debate: “In the beginning, we were a bit nervous, but with each round, we have improved our argument and became more confident. It was quite frustrating that it was so close since we only lost by one point. However, it was a very useful event for our language skills. We are proud that we put ourselves up for the challenge!”