Since his team narrowly missed out at the National Final six years ago, teacher Anthony Kirby has been biding his time, and the college had until yesterday far failed to gain a place at the prestigious national final. However, with strong individual performances across the day of the 2011 South East Regional Finals in debates that included ‘Copyight benefits the arts’ and ‘Happiness is the business of government’ the Godalming team finally won through in a tense final on the motion ‘We should embrace the use of smart drugs’. A judge at the final debate, Dr Harry Witchell, lecturer at Brighton and Sussex Medical School, said of the team:

“Whilst the debate was close and the standard was extremely high, Godalming managed to really evolve in their arguments and remained consistent throughout the discussion.”

The judges then awarded the team the regional title.

Speaking after the win, teacher Anthony Kirby said:

“All six members of the team have really proved themselves today, the standard overall has been extremely high and opposition strong. I am extremely proud of them.”

Two of the speakers, Shaan Tehal and Fiona Miller, were awarded Honourable Mentions from a team of individual judges, who were looking out for the strongest individual contributions of the day. Shaan Tehal, said after the debates:

“Finally the team can actually get some sleep! We have been up all last week until 3am preparing for these debates, but it was worth it for the result.”

Teachers and students alike believe that they will go on to achieve great things at the 3-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 Iain Dale, Presenter, LBC Radio and political; Christopher Cook, Chair of the Cheltenham Music Festival and Lecturer in Cultural Studies, University of the Arts; Ralph Leighton, Senior Lecturer, Canterbury Christ Church University; Dr Harry Witchel, Senior Lecturer in Physiology, Brighton and Sussex Medical School; Christine Thompson, Policy Manager, SABMiller.

Ralph Leighton, Lecturer at Canterbury Christ Church University, Regional Sponsor of the competition, who judged the Regional Final said of the event:

“Debate, disagreement and informed discussion is what Higher Education is all about, which is why Canterbury Christ Church support this fantastic competition. The day has been fascinating. There was an exceptionally high quality of debate from all teams, making it very difficult to judge!”

FURTHER HELP

Notes for Editors
1/ The South East Regional Final of the Institute of Ideas Debating Matters Competition took place at Salomons Centre, Tunbridge Wells, on 14th March 2011. This region of the competition is sponsored by Canterbury Christ Church University. For more information about the CCCU, visit www.canterbury.ac.uk
2/ Schools that took part in the competition were: Steyning Grammar (West Sussex); St Joseph Williamson’s Mathematical School (Rochester); Folkestone School for Girls; Godalming College (Surrey); Tonbridge Grammar School; Burgess Hill School for Girls (West Sussex).
3/ Godalming College received £500 worth of Hodder Education books. Runners up Steyning School won £250 worth of Hodder Education books and both receive a year’s online subscription to Encyclopaedia Britannica, as well as a year’s subscription to Total Politics Magazine.
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 press passes or to interview students, teachers, judges and other participants, please contact .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on 020 7269 9232.

Notes for Photo Editors: Godalming team L-R: Teacher John Carr, Sally Bowell, Phélim Brady, Shaan Tehal, teacher Anthony Kirby, Fiona Miller, Maddie Bishop, Scott Pepe