The College debate team recently participated for the first time in the prestigious Oxford Schools Debate Competition organised by the Oxford Student Union. 

Set up by the politics department, the team travelled to London to take part in the South East Regional Round against a range of other schools and colleges. 

In a series of British Parliamentary debates our teams debated two interesting motions - whether ‘students should be motivated by material rewards’ and whether the concept of ‘ride or die’ was a positive social phenomenon. The Farnborough teams received praise from the judges for their delivery, questioning and teamwork. 

The students found it to be a highly rewarding and enriching experience.

Joshua,First year student said “I found the event to be an incredible way to practise my public speaking skills in the context of my current academic studies”.

While Alec,First year student thought it was “A fantastic experience and it totally improved my communication skills and concentration because I had to constantly keep up with everyone else. It was lovely to grow closer to the team as well”.

Their teammate Adhil,First year student thought “It was an exciting new challenge to undertake, which gave me a rare opportunity to put myself out of my comfort zone. Everyone involved was very cordial and it was an enjoyable environment”. 

Prior to the event, the students had been undertaking weekly practice sessions during lunchtimes to hone their debating skills. Stephen Ellis, Politics subject teacher has been running the debate sessions this year. 

Reflecting on the event Stephen said “All of the Farnborough debaters did an excellent job. Not seeing the motion beforehand and only having a short period to prepare for the debate is extremely challenging, and all of our teams did an excellent job coming up with innovative arguments. It has been a real pleasure to watch our debaters go from strength to strength over the last few months and I am looking forward to working with them and some new debaters as we get ready for next year’s competition”.