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Posted on March 10th 2020
Year 7 Win Harris Federation Debating Prize
Harris Academy Beckenham was proud to take part in the first ever Harris Central Quadrant Debate Competition for Year 7 students last month. Report by Megan, Year 7.
Six different academies from across the Harris Federation took part in the Debate Competition, which took place at Harris Girls' Academy East Dulwich. It was an opportunity to showcase our public speaking skills based on various topics that were part of current affairs.
Mr Collier brought a group of six including myself to the competition. We had been working very hard preparing our argument for the motion ‘This house believes the best way to tackle climate change is for individuals to reduce their carbon footprint.’
This was a challenging task and we had the formidable hosts in the first round of the debate. To our luck, we scored 21 points out of a possible 25 to capture the first round of the cup competition.
As students, we were overwhelmed at the fact that we won and got through to the next round where we were battling it out with Harris East Dulwich Boys on an unprepared motion. We were very nervous about the unprepared motion, but it turned out in our favour as it was “Schools should ban the use of school uniforms”.
Mr Collier helped us to prepare our argument for the motion. The semi-final was very tough and East Dulwich were very challenging through numerous points of information and rebuttals which made our argument more difficult to portray but we managed to pull through and engrave our pathway to the finals of the first ever Harris Central Quadrant Debate Competition.
The stage was set for a fantastic battle between Harris Academy Beckenham and Harris Academy Bermondsey. The three judges for the final were Rebecca Hickey (Assistant Director), Keith Turpin (Parent Governor) and Chris Brown (Wider Opportunities Director of HAGED).
The final motion was about the impact of social media on the health of teenagers. As a team, Megan, Sasha, Grace and Martin pulled together and concluded the day with an amazing victory. Harris Academy Beckenham had won the first ever Harris Quadrant Debate Competition!
The day was enriched with high level debates and enjoyment. Thank you to Harris Girls' Academy East Dulwich for your welcoming hosting. We look forward to the Harris Central Quadrant Debate for Year 8 which will be hosted by none other than our winners, Harris Academy Beckenham.
By Megan, Year 7.