College News
The Review Online
Spouting for College
12th February 2008
Hereford Sixth Form College – in the form of James Langford and Michael Wheeler – were in good form at the recent Three Counties Parliamentary Debate competition at Malvern College, in which sixteen major schools and colleges from Herefordshire, Worcestershire and Gloucestershire took part.
This was a new format for the College, markedly different from the regular debates held by the College’s Debating Society and from the more traditional public speaking staged by ‘Soap Box’.
For James and Michael, on their debut, to come within two points of grabbing a place in the Final was a splendid effort.
In Parliamentary-style debate schools and colleges compete as teams of two, with four teams taking part in each debate. One team proposes the motion, one opposes it. The third team will then support the motion, adding to and enhancing the arguments put by the first proposers, and the fourth team does a similar job on behalf of the opposition and also sums up the debate.
Each team therefore has a slightly different role – and little time to prepare for it. Fifteen minutes is all the time given to teams to prepare after they are advised of the motion to be debated. That gets the adrenalin – and the powers of recall – flowing!
Another aspect of the competition which accentuates adrenalin flow is that each speaker can be interrupted by a question or point of information during their speech. Speakers have 5 minutes in which to put their case, of which the first minute and the last minute are sacrosanct from interruption. Not every question or point of order has to be taken by the speaker.
Part of the skill is being able to respond to these questions and interruptions - and being able to flag some away – without losing the thrust of your argument. As opposers, part of the skill is knowing when, and how, to interject.
Marking focuses very much on the quality of the arguments put forward, and the structure of these arguments.
At the Malvern competition all sixteen teams took part in three debates during the afternoon. These were as follows: This House would ban MPs from employing their relatives; This House would withdraw all British troops from Afghanistan; and This House believes that the state should not fund fertility treatment.
With their own knowledge, and the back-up of an intense studying of the week’s current affairs, James and Michael were able to wax lyrical on these topics. On the second theme they were the winning team in their round of that debate.
Following supper, St Edwards Cheltenham, Bromsgrove School, Pershore HS and RGS-Alice Otley Worcester competed in the Final, which was won by the St. Edwards pair. They were certainly the form horses, having gained maximum points in each of the three preliminary rounds.
James and Michael thrived on the stimulating, and novel, experience – and are looking for opportunities for a repeat.
