News Remote Debating 14.05.2020

Lockdown has not left Godolphin’s large and passionate cohort of debaters silent. Last Monday, we staged our first online debate, against Latymer Upper. Year 7 and 8 students successfully argued for changing the rules on organ donation after death from opt in to opt out, winning an exceptionally high quality debate by 87 marks out of 100 to 85. Older students from both schools also took part as judges.

Following this success, we intend to run weekly debates against Latymer Upper for students in Years 7 to 9. We have also recruited students in Years 10 and 11 for a debate against Putney High School scheduled for Thursday 14 May, and are in the process of setting up debates against Benenden and South Hampstead High for our Sixth Form students. Meanwhile, the lunchtime debating clubs continue to meet every week and are better supported than ever, while the House finals which had to be cancelled at short notice when the school closed will now go ahead online.

Godolphin’s Head of Debating, Julian Bell, said, ‘I am so excited at this new development in our debating offer, and am inspired by how enthusiastically the girls have embraced it. I am hoping to grow online debating even further by staging a multi-school tournament after Half Term. I can see a future for online debating even after lockdown ends, as it provides a low-cost, low-carbon way of bringing debaters together from anywhere in the country and all round the world.’

We second that motion, Mr Bell!