Oxford Schools' Debate Competition Final

They did The Ashcombe proud!  Two of our students, Matt and Freddie, won through to the finals of the internationally prestigious Oxford Schools’ Debate, qualifying from 400 schools countrywide and internationally. Teams had flown in from as far afield as South Korea, India and Canada to take part in finals day, which involved a gruelling 4 rounds of debates before culminating in the evening final. Debates took place in the historic Cherwell College debating chamber – quite a change from lunch-time Debate Club meetings on Wednesdays in R17!

The boys did extremely well - they won one of their debates, lost one, and came 3rd in the others, and were only 3 points away from reaching the novice final debate.

Motions they debated included:

• This house believes that works of modern fictional media should not portray members of an oppressed minority group (such as LGBTQ+ or minority ethnicity groups) as villains
• This house regrets the glorification of the career longevity of dominant sportspersons (e.g. Lebron James, Tom Brady, Cristiano Ronaldo)
• This house believes that parents should not teach children about their own conceptions of the afterlife
• This house, as the environmental movement, would dissociate themselves with the degrowth movement.

Run by the Oxford Union, Oxford Schools' is the largest British Parliamentary school-level debate competition in the world, and the largest debating competition in the UK, aimed at students aged 14-18. Over a thousand students participate, predominantly from selective or private schools.  Well done!