Hosted at St Sampson’s High School, the event saw two teams of two students from five of the island’s secondary schools come forward to debate whether cars ought to be banned from central St Peter Port, and afterwards to debate the social media ban for under-16s – a motion for which they had only 15 minutes to prepare.
‘We really didn’t expect to win – we just did it for experience,’ said Amelie Buck, 12, who conquered the competition alongside fellow student Alicia Cathcart, also 12.
‘I think we did quite well at thinking on the spot. We were just trying our hardest, really.’
The two students have some previous experience in debate – both are a part of Les Beaucamps’ debate club – but neither had participated in a similar competition before, and having only 15 minutes to prepare for the unseen motion posed the biggest challenge of the day.
‘It was quite intense,’ Alicia said.
‘You just try to get down as much as you can.’
The Les Beaucamps duo weren’t the only girls to dominate the podium. Two Year 9 The Ladies’ College students placed as the runners-up in the competition.
‘It comes as quite a surprise,’ said Georgie Keyho, 14.
‘I’ve never debated before – this was my first time.’
Newness to debate was just one of the challenges the girls faced, as they too found the unseen motion to be difficult.
‘I feel like I’m much stronger reading my speech,’ said Robin Scott, 14.
‘I’m happy with how we did, though. Georgie did so well, especially given it’s her first time debating.’
The 10 teams debated for the entirety of an afternoon, arriving at 1.15pm and finishing up only around 3.30pm.
‘I’m really proud of everyone who took part,’ said St Sampson’s High’s assistant curriculum lead for humanities, Sarah Diaz, who organised this year’s event.
‘They all chose to be here, so it was great to see so many young people give their time to do something like this.’
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