At the end of March, Mr Brennan and Miss Khurjekar accompanied seven Habs debating teams to Durham University for their prestigious annual Durham Schools Debating Competition.

As one of the pinnacles of the debating calendar, all speeches were of a high calibre, including those of our own students. 

The road to the quarter-finals

The teams faced a demanding first day, debating motions around the commercialisation of social movements and the ban on gambling. On the second day, they debated flipped learning and social housing schemes, with five qualification rounds in total.

Two of our seven teams made it through to the quarter finals. The first pair featured William (L6S2) and Sohan (L6M1), while the second was made up of Nazim (10S2) and Feeza (U5 A), the only student from Habs Girls. This placed both pairs in the best 16 out of 80 teams in all, proving an amazing achievement.

A narrow defeat

The quarter-finals were incredibly competitive, with the motion set as ‘THW abolish awards in creative fields’. Both teams delivered excellent speeches, only to narrowly miss out on a place in the semis.

Special mention must go to Rajarshi (L6J2) who placed 12th on the best speakers list, out of 160 speakers in total. William (L6S2) and Rohitash (U6J1) also fared well, placing joint 16th on the same list.

Our Year 10s and Year 12s put in a sterling display and we are keen to continue building on this success in the future.

Congratulations to all the students who took part, including Aarav (10H1), Samit (10R1), Richard (10R1), Lucas (10C2), Nazim (10S2), Feeza (U5 A), William (L6S2), Sohan (L6M1), Danny (10J2), Shakir (10J1), Zafer (L6M1), Zakariya (L6R1), Rohitash (U6J1) and Rajarshi (L6J2).