Head's Newsletter 13 November 2020

LONDON SIXTH FORM ONLINE DEBATING COMPETITION

The Tiffin School Debating Society is probably as big as it has ever been and it is certainly thriving. There are online societies for Juniors (Wednesdays) and Intermediates (Thursdays) and in the Sixth Form live debates take place in year group bubbles every Tuesday after school. Most Tuesdays there will be four or five different debates.”

The Tiffin School Debating Society were invited to compete in the London Sixth Form Online Debating Competition, hosted by Julian Bell of the Godolphin and Latymer school. We were up against schools from across the UK and beyond, with schools in Spain and the USA also taking part. Naturally, we seized the opportunity and sent in two teams of our best debaters, Lottie Fry and Adam Shakoor as Team A, with Sam Bradley and Joe Manley as Team B. The qualifying round was held on November 11th, with both teams participating in 2 debates, fighting to claim a place in the top 8 and go through to the finals. Arguing on the difficult motions of 'This House Would Make It Illegal Not to Take a Proven Vaccine' and 'This House Would Tax Meat', both teams thought of convincing and original arguments in a short time, presenting them with confidence and conviction. At the end of the day, both teams did remarkably well with Team A scoring 102/120, coming 2nd and 1st in their debates and Team B scoring 85/120, coming 2nd in both. This secured Team A, 3rd place overall and Team B, 6th, in the face of opposition from other seasoned and admirable debaters. We are proud to say both of our teams are progressing to the finals where we have no doubt they will impress once again.

RICHMOND AND TWICKENHAM TIMES

Grace Brookes (YR 12) was published in the Richmond and Twickenham Times this week. Grace has been part of the Young Reporter Scheme since September and submits articles on a regular basis. This article was called “Our Charity shops are changing but how?” and was inspired by her interest in Human Geography and the changing High Street as well as the Vintage clothing items available in so many Charity shops. Grace also started volunteering for Oxfam in August. Well done Grace! I am sure this will be the first of many interesting articles.