News St Paul’s Girls’ School Women’s Debating Open Competition 01.10.2026

On Saturday 26 September, eight students across Years 8-11 took part in a series of intellectually rigorous debates, competing with female students from other leading London schools across 50 teams.

In this student-led competition, Godolphin girls were presented with unseen motions and given 15 minutes preparation time before going head-to-head with other teams in a series of British Parliamentary style debates. The motions were challenging, ranging from more the more philosophical, ‘This House Regrets the belief that there is virtue in suffering’, to the societal, ‘This House Believes that teachers should recommend the study of humanities at university to students’.

A number of our girls, for many of whom this was their first competition, came first in their individual heats, showing great promise for their success at future competitions. The entire Godolphin and Latymer team performed admirably, and a huge congratulations to Olivia, Year 9, Nayeon, Year 11, Layan, Year 10, Defne, Year 8, Shirin, Year 10, Charlotte, Year 8, and Fafa, Year 9, for representing the school with such distinction.