By Mrs Lincoln (English and Psychology Teacher)

On Monday 11th May, we were invited to a friendly debate competition at Goldington Academy. The first motion was handled by our Year 7 team (Aasiyah, Ogechi and Fleur), who were arguing that schools should teach Politics as a core subject. They argued extremely well, bringing in conversations they have had with Year 9 students at BGS who study Politics and the value this subject has in school.

The second motion was ‘Jury service should be optional’, which our Year 8 team (Zaynah, Jaya and Poppy) were arguing against. This team also did a brilliant job, bringing in lots of relevant statistics highlighting the benefits of a mandatory jury service and insightful real-life examples of cases where an optional jury has led to misrepresentation.

This was one of the first competitive debates for some of our students, and I was extremely proud of how well they had prepared and the way they expressed themselves. A particular well done to Zaynah Ghafoor (Year 8) who received a certificate for ‘Outstanding rebuttal’, Ogechi Nwolu (Year 7) for ‘Best proposition speaker’ and Fleur Rocheville-Green (Year 7) for ‘Best summary speaker.’ Hopefully, the experience will encourage them to continue debating and perhaps enter future competitions, such as the national ESU Mace competition that we plan to participate in again in the next academic year!