St. Helen’s College Win Forfar Debating Competition!
This week the St. Helen’s College team were crowned the overall winners of the inter-school Forfar Debating Competition in an extremely close final against Brackenfield School in Harrogate.
The St. Helen’s College team successfully argued against the motion ‘If children ran the world it would be a better place’ in the online debate where they clearly and coherently presented a compelling argument and carefully worked together to tackle challenging questions from the judges and the Brackenfield team.
Ten schools from the Forfar Education group across the UK participated in the competition. The final was chaired by Mrs Jo Storey, Country Director UK at Forfar Education and judged by Mrs Jessica Miles, Head of Badminton School, Mrs Caroline Wethey, a retired CoEd Preparatory School Head and Mr Alex Brough, Assistant Director of Education at Forfar Education.
Despite incredibly tough opposition, in the end the St. Helen’s College pupils pipped Brackenfield to the post and were praised by the judges for the breadth and flow of their argument, excellent listening skills, their spontaneous responses to challenging questions and for excellent teamwork.
Ms Green, Head at St. Helen’s College says, ‘This is an amazing achievement, and is a testament to the dedication of the team who worked extremely hard in preparation for the final. We were extremely impressed by their terrific performance in the final and are very proud of them all.’ The team were supported by their Year 6 peers who collaborated and worked hard with the team in rehearsals and during the early rounds of the competition, and also provided valuable support for the St. Helen’s College team on the day.
Mrs Storey from Forfar Education initiated and chaired the competition as an opportunity for pupils to connect across the Forfar community and to support ongoing collaboration. Mrs Storey says, ‘Events like the Forfar Debating Competition do far more than crown a winner, they bring our schools together and give pupils the opportunity to develop confidence, critical thinking and the ability to articulate and challenge ideas thoughtfully.’
St. Helen’s College has a proud legacy of excellence in oracy, a ‘significant strength’ recognised by the ISI in the most recent school inspection report. Pupils are introduced to public speaking from the very beginning in Nursery and as they progress through the school to Year 6 the children have many opportunities to speak and perform in class assemblies, theatrical productions, musical recitals and concerts, and to perform in the prestigious annual speech and singing competitions.
Many congratulations to everyone involved in this very successful event!