In November, the KS4 Debate team (Joseph, Jasmine, Thomas, Edward and Daisy) took part in the English Speaking Union’s MACE competition, the oldest and largest debating competition for schools in England and Wales. We were chosen as the opposition for the topic “This house would ban dating and relationship-based reality TV”. This meant we had the tricky task of coming up with reasons why dating shows should not be banned. Together, we spent a few weeks beforehand researching and developing ideas and evidence for our case, eventually coming up with three main points for the argument.

The competition was held at Bradfield College, who were very hospitable hosts, providing us with a range of excellent food, particularly the soup (was three bowls too much?). We were paired against Langtree School, who presented some excellent arguments on the effects of reality shows on contestants’ mental wellbeing, and fought against Wallingford with a well-thought-through case. Thank you to them for such brilliant competition.

At the end of the night, the all-important scores came in from the judges, and although there was some confusion over a misspelling of the school, Wallingford was announced as going through to the next round!

Thank you to Mrs Harding for her excellent mentoring so far. The team feels we have learnt a lot from this experience and we’re excited to take this new knowledge into the next section of the competition.

- Edward Wilcox, Year 11