The Courier & Advertiser (Fife Edition)
School pupils talking their way to the top
Grove Academy pupils are on top of the world after seeing off international competition to be crowned winners of a virtual debating competition.
Pupils at the Broughty Ferry school took part in an inaugural debating programme, run by the School Mock Court Case Project, last week and were crowned overall winners by a panel of esteemed judges.
The team, made up of pupils Finlay Ross, Iqra Al Taf, Ella Matthews, Jack Anderson and Harry Leadingham, debated the issue of plastics and if they should be banned.
The debate was held virtually and almost 200 students from countries including Spain, Holland and Bahrain took part.
Courtney Dow, principal teacher of modern studies at Grove, said: “We have been involved with Mock Court before.
“They reached out to us to say they were launching a debating programme and if we wanted to be involved.
“So I put it out on the school Twitter, and this lovely group volunteered.”
Each school was paired with another for the debate, with each taking the side of either proposition or opposition.
Grove was up against Holyrood Secondary School, from Glasgow, in its debate and argued against the banning of plastics.
The scores from their debate were then tallied up and compared against the others schools to see who came out on top.
Harry explained: “We were the opposition so we were no to banning plastics, and we all argued the same position but with different topics. For example, one of us took maths and another science.
“You were judged on things like how well you had researched, your listening skills, your ability to speak well and convey your arguments.”
To help the teams prepare for the debate, they had to tune into four weekly lectures hosted by lecturers including lawyers and representatives from Greenpeace.
They then had two weeks to prepare for the live debate, but were only told after the lectures what side they would be arguing for.
Jack said: “From the very start of the Mock Court you knew what side you would be on but for this, through all of the lectures, you didn’t know.
“That was quite interesting because you were listening to both sides of the argument.”
The pupils used their spare time, including their Easter break, to work together on their speeches.
And the team’s winning achievement is all the more remarkable considering just two members, Finlay and Ella, have previous debating experience.
Ella said: “I am part of the debating team at school and have debated before, but some people on this team had no experience and wrote and gave their speeches with practically no assistance or coaching – I was so impressed and proud of them all.”