Spanish Debating Win

The Spanish debating competition for schools in North and Central London took place on the evening of Thursday 26 January at Westminster School. The competition was aimed at pupils in the Lower and Upper Sixth Form who are studying Spanish. The schools participating were: Westminster, Haileybury, Haberdashers Aske's, North London Collegiate, Wycombe Abbey, Mill Hill, Merchant Taylors’, Eton and Bancroft’s.

Each debating team competed in two debates, which are held in Spanish, in a pool, where they gained points to determine which teams progress through to the semi-finals and, ultimately, on to the final. Sonali Arora (L6N) and Dafydd Prole (U6E), representing Bancroft’s, beat North London Collegiate in favour of the motion “Everyone has the right to a dignified and assisted death”, and then Eton against the motion “Technological advances have not provided us with more happiness” to reach the semi-finals.  They then faced another pair from North London Collegiate. The motion for the semi-final was given to competitors only twenty minutes before the actual debate and they had no help to prepare for this apart from a dictionary. After another outstanding performance debating in favour of “Competition is positive for children” they reached the final of the competition to debate against Eton and the motion was: “Should freedom of speech be limited?” Competition was fierce but the judges chose Sonali and Dafydd as worthy winners. Everyone was truly impressed by their level of both debating skills and Spanish. This is an outstanding achievement and we warmly congratulate them.