Stamford School Hosts Oswald Elliott Inter-schools Debating Competition

Year 10 pupils from Stamford School enjoyed an evening of friendly competitive debating this week as Stamford hosted its annual inter-schools debating competition, with teams from local schools competing for the Oswald Elliott Debating Shield.

Young teams from Stamford, Bourne Grammar School, King’s Grantham and Oundle took part in the competition, with topical motions ranging from reducing the UK voting age to 16 to the merits of going to university and a ban on smartphones for Under 16s. The debates were ably chaired by Shreyansh (Y10), with Cara (Y9) as timer.

The Stamford team - Bear, Rebecca and Noah- all in Year 10, were successful in their first round against Bourne Grammar, earning Stamford a place in the final against King’s Grantham. It was a closely fought final, but King’s were deserving winners of the Oswald Elliott Shield for 2024, a debating trophy designed and created for the event by Mr Mike Holdsworth of the Stamford School Design and Technology department.

The debates were judged by Tom Watson (OS 2020), an experienced debater and judge who has just completed an MSc in Mathematical Physics at the University of Nottingham, and Adam (Y12), next year’s debating captain.

The schools are looking forward to a re-match next year. Karen Leetch, who organised the event, was delighted that the visiting schools all enjoyed the evening and learned a lot: " In a society where oracy - the ability to exchange reasoned arguments with confidence, whilst being prepared to listen and respond to the opinions of others - is so important, debating skills are a key part of a school's co-curricular provision.