On Tuesday two teams of Lower Sixth students attended the European Youth Parliament Event at Bede’s. After an early start for the debaters, they arrived at Bede’s – with a complimentary cookie! The teams sat down at their respective tables, nervously sizing up the competition. The event was focused on two topics to debate including ‘giving technology to the elderly’ with teams deciding to defend or attack.
The first debate started, and our first team got up to the podium, kicking the debate off with an opening speech from Tom P. A curveball from Tom N, a few quick-thinking responses from Lucien H, and the teams were off. The team’s resolution, although passionately defended, ultimately sunk, and gave way to the next round of debate. The war-like process of defence and offence continued, with the debate growing ever livelier as they neared lunch.
After lunch, more debate ensued, each round growing more and more heated until the time came for the second team to take the stand and defend digital skills training programmes. Tom N, reading the duo of Tom and Oliver’s incredibly well-written speech, set up a strong defence. However, it seems the opponents particularly wanted to see Hurst’s resolution’s destruction, and even Poppy’s speech – a masterclass in both rhetoric and delivery – couldn’t save it from ultimately being voted down.
At the end of the day, the winners were announced, and one of the Hurst teams succeeded, putting them through to the National Finals later in the year. After a long day of team building and fruitful debate, the students return to Hurst with a very proud Mr Nash.