Wednesday 10th July 2019
Oswald Elliott Cup Charity Debate
This house believes that "teenagers responsible for the current mental health crisis?"
Stamford Endowed Schools’ students, parents, staff and governors enjoyed an evening of thought-provoking debate this week to raise awareness of mental health issues and raise money for Mindspace, Stamford’s mental health charity.
Dr Dan Petrie, local Stamford GP, introduced the evening by giving a short talk about Mindspace, the local mental health charity he has spearheaded since moving to Stamford in 2015. This was followed by a debate and audience “Question Time” style discussion about mental health, focusing on the motion, “This House believes that today’s teenagers are responsible for the current mental health crisis”.
Speakers in the debate were competing for the Oswald Elliott debating cup and included current Stamford debating captains, Chloe Smyth and Oscar Dixon-Spain, and Old Stamfordians Giorgio Rubbo (graduating this year from the University of Sheffield) and Daisy Jowers (a first year student at Magdalen College, Oxford). The debate was chaired by current debating captain Tom Watson.
The evening raised over £300 for Mindspace. Karen Leetch, who organised the event, commented: “It was great to see students, staff and parents discussing mental health issues openly in such a large forum and we were delighted to be able to raise donations for Mindspace, an ambitious local charity. A charity debate is a new venture for SES debating and one we will certainly want to repeat in future”.