The team from Fordingbridge were the novice team of the round, having entered the competition for the first time this year. Winning their local Qualifying Round, the team were delighted to have managed to get so far as the Regional Final.

The Burgate students saw off stiff competition from across London and the South, debating contemporary issues such as ‘Fairtrade holds back the developing world’ and ‘Government should introduce economic incentives to encourage healthy behaviour’. They took on Woodhouse Sixth Form College from North London in the final and successfully argued for the motion ‘Wikileaks is good for democracy’ becoming regional champions of the Institute of Ideas Debating Matters Competition.

Though they all agreed both teams in the final had significant merits judges lauded considerable praise on Burgate School and Sixth Form College. Simon Wilde, the Associate Director of Communications at NICE said of debaters William Hall and Jack Rowett:

“You both gave wide ranging presentations, and argued with coherence and real strength of argument. I was scared of the questions that came to you from the judging panel, but you did a great job responding to those very difficult issues.”

Jack Rowett also impressed a team of individual judges, who were present at debates across the day and were on the look-out for those individuals who made the most outstanding contributions across the day. Winning the second prize for Best Individual, Jack was told:

“You were clear, concise and a real team player. Despite some tough questioning you never buckled.”

Speaking after their win William Hall said:

“We loved the thrill of tough questioning. The key thing is to never give up, to keep thinking that you can win the argument as the debate progresses.”

Teacher Mr Rowett believes that the team will go on to achieve great things at the three-day Debating Matters Competition National Final in London in July, which the students won a place to, alongside subscriptions to Encyclopaedia Britannica and £500 worth of Hodder Education books for their school.

Debating Matters is no ordinary debating competition. Renowned for being ‘the toughest debating competition in the country’ debaters were grilled by panels of expert judges. Judges included Dr Lisa Appignanesi, a prize winning author and former president of campaigning writers organisation, English PEN; Sam Anthony, Knowledge Commissioning Executive Producer, BBC; Ann Furedi, Chief Executive of British Pregnancy Advisory Service (bpas); Simon Wilde, Associate Director of External Communications, National Institute of Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE).

Simon Wilde from event sponsors NICE, said of the event:

“It’s been fascinating. There was an exceptionally high quality of debate from all teams, making it very difficult to judge! NICE is often asked to make difficult decisions about how a healthcare system with a finite pot of money can best use its resources to provide good health for all. We believe that it is important that society has the opportunity to discuss and debate these important issues, which is why we are proud to be sponsors of the Debating Matters Competition.”

FURTHER HELP

Notes for Editors
(1)        The London and South Regional Final of the Institute of Ideas Debating Matters Competition took place at the Free Word Centre, Farringdon, London on Monday 21 March. This region of the competition is sponsored by the National Institute of Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE). For more information about NICE visit: www.nice.org.uk
(2)        NICE is an independent organisation responsible for providing national guidance on promoting good health and preventing and treating ill health.
(3)        Schools that debated at the final were: The Green School (Isleworth); Ashmole Academy (Southgate); The Piggott School(Reading); Burgate School (Hampshire); Thomas Tallis School (Kidbrooke); Woodhouse College (North Finchley)
(4)        Full details of the programme for the day, including all the debate motions and topic guides, can be found here. For further information about the competition, go to www.debatingmatters.com. For information please contact.(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on 020 7269 9232.

Notes for Photo Editors: The Burgate School & Sixth Form team L-R: Chris Garrett, Jack Rowett, William Hall, George Ward