On Wednesday 4th March, the History and Politics department invited a number of Year 11 students to take part in the Cheshire Debate Competition at Upton High School.
During the competition, all participants had to prepare speeches on different topics provided to them (Opposition and Proposition) arguing their viewpoint for no more than 4 minutes.
In the first round, Team ‘A’ debated against The Ellesmere Port Catholic High School in the motion ‘parents do not have the right to go through their children’s phones’ with the argument that children need to be free and learn for themselves being the prime focus. After a hard-fought round by the students, the certificate for best speaker went to student, Jonathan Colecliffe due to his concluding argument. Again, against the Catholic high school for the first round, ‘Team B’ on the Proposition used the argument that parents have the right to search their children’s phones to help spot the dangers before it is too late.
During the second motion, Team ‘B’, on the proposition, supporting the idea that the death penalty should be reinstated used the argument that after a conviction of a serious crime the criminal won’t be able to hurt anyone else bringing proper justice and closure for the family. At the end of this round, Abdellah Mekahfia won a certificate for the best points of interests (P.O.I), he had asked the other team during their argument in an attempt to counter their viewpoint.
The final round posed to both sides looked towards the idea ‘the human race will eventually destroy itself’. Team A as the proposition for this round, used 3 different arguments for their debate. One focusing on the potential impact on climate change, the usage of materials and a historical point of view with the development of new weapons. Winning against a strong Upton High school, Team A had left with another 2 certificates for Jonathan Colecliffe winning one for his P.O.I’s and another for Joseph Galloway for the best speech.
Finally, Team ‘B’ had took the debate and tried to oppose against the motion using history to back them up. After a strong counter argument, Team B also saw them win this round against Upton High School, with another certificate for Abdellah Mekhalfia and his P.O.I’s.
After three fantastic rounds of debating by both teams, the Ellesmere Port CE College’s Team B had won a bronze medal finishing in a very strong 3rd place with a total of 2 certificates. Team A had placed a very close 4th, winning 5 certificates for their team. Both teams had been really successful bringing home a total of 7 certificates with student Jonathan Colecliffe stating, “considering it was our second tournament and we went against sixth Form students we did great!”.