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Posted on May 31st 2024
Debate Mate Cup Winners 2024
Our Debate Club took two teams to the Debate Mate Cup at SOAS university in April. Our Year 9 and Year 10 were among over 30 teams from across London who took part in the competition.
The first motion was a pre-prepared motion which meant that students had seen the motion ahead of time and spent time preparing their arguments for it. The competition was sponsored by Sony so it was fitting this motion had a musical connection: “This house believes that social media makes it more difficult to become a successful musician”. Both teams ended up in opposition so were disagreeing with the motion. Despite the challenging motion, both of our teams came out on top of these debates and set the tone for the day by winning their opening debate.
“Three-day weekend”
We moved on to our second unseen motion, meaning that students are only told the motion 15 minutes before they must start debating it! The second motion was: “This house would introduce a three-day weekend”. For this motion, both of our teams were placed in proposition so were agreeing with the motion. Again, our students did incredibly well and both came away with a second win.
The third motion was: “This house would give harsher punishments for celebrities who commit crimes”. Both teams ended up on the same side of the motion and were placed in proposition. For the third debate, the results of each debate are not revealed in order to keep the reveal about the two highest scoring teams exciting!
Cheering and supporting
Special mention to Ms Keenaghan who also put on an impressive performance and bravely volunteered to be part of the teacher/mentor show debate. This meant she debated live on stage in front of all teams and our girls did a fantastic job of cheering and supporting her from the audience. A big thank you to Ms Keenaghan for demonstrating our school values of character, courage and conscience and as always for your help and support with the club.
Our students enjoyed some karaoke whilst they waited for the results and a shout-out goes to Aminata and Elizabeth who led the entire auditorium in a sing along to TLC’s No Scrubs. This helped to ease some of the tension and excitement in the room!
Results announced
Then it was time for results. The top five scoring schools were revealed alongside the points they had amassed throughout the competition. I am really pleased to say that our Year 9 team came 5th overall in the competition, gaining a very impressive 199 points – only three points behind 4th place, which was Sacred Heart. Our Year 9s should be incredibly proud of themselves, especially given that many of them only started debating with the club this year!
The rest of the scores were then announced... to reveal that our Year 10 had come second with 210 points! This put them through to the final meaning they would be debating against the highest scoring team from the day (City of London Academy) in a final live debate in front of all of the other teams.
Into the Grand Final
The final motion was: “This house believes that people should break the law in order to save the environment”. Our team really seemed to enjoy their time on stage with lots of smiles from them and plenty of support and encouragement from the other teams in the audience.
At the end of the debate, the judges were sent away to deliberate and there were a nervous few moments waiting for the result to be announced. I am so pleased to say that our team were announced as the winners, making them the winners of the London Debate Mate Cup of 2024! All of the students should be so proud of this achievement – it has been a real joy to see them be rewarded for the hard work and effort they have put in over this year.
This result means they will enter into the Grand Final competition being held at the end of June – so watch this space for more news then!
HGAED excels at the Sony Music UK Debate Mate Cup 2024.
