A quartet of student debating stars is the talk of the Bishop’s Stortford High School (TBSHS).
Year 12 pupils Elliot Wood and William Worthy were both selected for the first day of trials for the team to represent England at the World Schools Debating Championships in the summer.
Unfortunately, Will had to drop out because of a prior commitment, but Elliot came through a gruelling day, involving a general knowledge quiz and no fewer than four debates, to qualify for the second stage along with 22 other speakers.
That was the end of his journey, but Will and Elliot joined forces once more to represent TBSHS at the regional round of the Cambridge Union Schools’ Competition, held online.
They were joined by a promising ‘novice’ team consisting of fellow Year 12 students Leyla Bubb and Max O’Reilly, both in their first interschool competition.
There were 28 teams in total drawn from the East of England, including representatives from Oundle, the Perse and Norwich schools, who battled through four fierce rounds for the prize of one of three spots in the international final.
Elliot and Will qualified after finishing a very close second overall while Max and Leyla were eighth. Further good news came with the individual speaker ratings for the day – Elliot and Will were joint third with Max in fifth place and Leyla, who only started debating in September, in equal 12th.
Retired teacher and team coach Tony Fraser said: “It is very gratifying to have two students in the 60 selected for England trials, and the quality of TBSHS debating was also reflected in the recent competition. With both teams in the top third and all our speakers in the top quarter of the individual rankings, this was an excellent day’s work.”
Head of the sixth form Rob Stark added, “As a school sixth form we pride ourselves on our extra-curricular provision. In what has been a very challenging time, I am immensely proud of all the debaters for giving up so much of their time and I want to congratulate them all for their efforts and achievements.
“During lockdown, the school has worked tremendously hard to maintain our sense of community and the continuation of whatever co-curricular activities we can provide plays a crucial part in that. The staff involved in school debating deserve a great deal of credit too. Therefore, I want to pay tribute to Mr Fraser for all his hard work, generosity and guidance to TBSHS school debating.”
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