Last Week the Debating Society joined a debating event hosted by Langley School and took part in both the Junior Debate and the Senior Debate.
Norwich School managed to get 3 prizes: Georgia Hudgson (U5) and Charlie Jeffs (L6) both won a prize as speakers in the Floor Debate and Dejon Manyeza (L5) secured the prize for the best Summariser in the Senior Debate! The event was called „Pizza and Polemic" and it was a highly successful and fun evening!
We caught up with Miss Amanolahi, who assists the debating society, about how the event went.
How was the event?
It was great fun! There were 7-8 different schools involved – The theme was “Pizza and Polemic”, so we had pizza first, then moved into the hall. It was a Christmas themed debate, questions included: Should we rename Christmas? Does Santa provide good working conditions? The audience were able get involved; it was a safe space, and everyone could say something.
Have you ever debated before?
Yes, I went to a bilingual school and at sixth form we had a debating society. In Germany, the debating format is slightly different to how it is done here.
In your opinion what was the strongest debate topic?
Santa’s working conditions and whether he offers good pay to his elves was a good fun debate. It produced some high-quality questions in the senior debate section. It was really great to see how many students got involved who I hadn’t really heard before – everyone got to say something even the quieter pupils. It was lovely to see the confidence that everyone had.
How did we do?
Norwich School won 3 prizes. Georgia Hudgson (U5 and Charlie Jeffs (L6) both won a prize as speakers in the Floor Debate. Dejon Manyeza (L5) secured the prize for the Best Summariser in the Senior Debate. There was no official overall winner as it was a casual event, but Norwich School did get the most prizes on the night!
Would you go again?
Yes, definitely! It was really good fun. We had discussions about Norwich School hosting this event in the future which would be a really nice thing to do.