Freemen's debating team runners' up in first competition

On Wednesday 1 March, a Year 12 debating team walked away as runners' up in their first debating competition at Charterhouse School in Godalming.

Jack R and Rhys S formed part of the team and had prepared three motions in advance of the competition which were:

• Soziale Netzwerke sollten volle Verantwortung für ihre Inhalte übernehmen (Social networks should take full responsibility for their content)
• Berühmte Persönlichkeiten haben die Pflicht gute Vorbilder zu sein. (Famous people should be good role models)
• Die Jugend hat ausrebelliert. Es gibt keine wahre Jugendkultur mehr.(Young people are done with rebellion. There is no real youth culture any more).

The students performed very well, providing strong arguments and defending themselves skilfully against the opposition.  

The final round was a completely unexpected theme which was Karneval ist albern – er sollte abgeschafft werden (carnival is silly and should be abolished).  

The students were arguing in favour of the motion and it was gratifying to see how effectively they were able to apply what they had learned in school to provide a robust defence, said teacher of French and German, Mrs Hankin. 

"Congratulations go to Jack and Rhys. The experience was very worthwhile and has whetted our appetites for this type of challenge. We will be back next year!" Mrs Hankin added.