26 February 2019
An enriching experience for all involved. Henry Pickess and Jimmy Strainge travelled with four supporting teachers; the two French assistants Emir Kovacevic and Marine Puireux and teachers Senora Fraile and Mr Fletcher-Campbell, to debate three testing motions on various topics, all whilst speaking French. They varied from the banning of Western social media in China, to the morality of worldwide meat consumption to the effects of the global dominance of the English language.
Both boys debated fiercely together against some strong, and in some cases more experienced opposition including Radley, Cheltenham and Downe House, and managed to win two out of their three debates, narrowly missing out on the final debate whilst still ending up joint winners of their group. Unfortunately, due to the technicalities of the scoring system, they were unable to progress to the final. However, both boys were able to take away valuable lessons of debating in a foreign language and found increased confidence in their ability to express their opinion whilst using some very technical and idiomatic French expressions.
By Henry Pickess and Jimmy Strainge