Habs boys excel at LSE Schools’ Debating Competition

On the 30 November, four Habs teams went with Mr Simm to the LSE Schools’ Debating Competition 2019. Speaking on motions varying from ‘This house would cap the amount that parents can spend on children’ to ‘This house believes that the UK should pursue closer ties with China at the expense of relations with the US’, the boys were intellectually stimulated and engaged throughout the day.

Results were especially impressive given the size of the competition, with over a 100 teams and 200 competitors attending on the day. Special congratulations must extend to Aniket and Aarnav, who finished 6th, and Lucas and Veylan, who finished 7th. Both teams qualified for the silver final, which Aniket and Aarnav then won – defeating teams from Dulwich College and Sevenoaks. No other school had two teams in the top eight. 

There were excellent results among younger boys too, with Fola (who is only in Year 9) finishing 2nd on the novice speaker tab whilst Lucas finished 3rd on the novice speaker tab. Fola finished only one point behind the top novice speaker – a Year 11 pupil from St Paul’s Girls’ School. Overall, Fola and Alex only just missed out on the novice final. The impressive performance of our novice speakers shows that the future of Habs debating is very bright. 

This follows impressive performances at the Dulwich College Schools’ Competition and in the first round of the ESU Debating Competition, where our boys were accompanied by Mr Hall. At Dulwich, Aniket and Keshav performed very impressively, finishing in joint 5th position and only being beaten by Eton and Westminster. Aniket also managed to finish in the top ten speakers on overall speaker points, which was a tremendous achievement. In the first round of the ESU, Habs won a comprehensive victory to move into the second round, having been represented by Aniket, Sam and Ahan. 

The debating revolution at the School continues. This has been a term of excellent progress, and we look forward to LSE Juniors, Oxford, Cambridge, Durham and other competitions with confidence next term.