Head's Newsletter 8 March 2019

The debating society

different viewpoints of the students and their peers in a friendly environment and helps the students see the way in which communication and an open mind can help you go far with viewpoints you don't necessarily believe in. CROSS COUNTRY On Wednesday 6 th February, the Tiffin cross country team competed in the King Henry VIII Relay Race in Coventry. The day was brilliant, and all boys performed extremely well, showing a significant improvement on last year’s times. The A team finished 19 th out of 53 schools nationwide, which was a phenomenal performance, especially given the wet and muddy conditions. Ollie Coppellotti finished his lap in a very quick time of 12 minutes and 30 seconds, followed closely by Eyoel Abebaw-Mesfin, with a time of 12.51. The B team also performed very well, with a time of 13 minutes 57 seconds from Will Murphy. Overall, a fantastic achievement and the boys should be very proud to have competed at such a high level.

The Debating Society runs every Monday at 12.50 in the JLT. It is led by three students: Ibrahim Ejaz 10RH, William Noble 13MO and Joseph Niblett 12LG. It gives the students the chance to develop their communicative skills, as well as their confidence in a supportive environment. Every week we present a new topic to challenge the students and make them think differently about the topic itself and how to display their view on it to their peers and persuade them. We encourage students to talk about their own beliefs and challenge those of others, to create true understanding of other beliefs and their own. In this, we are able to create a truly diverse audience for our debaters to present to.

We also regularly debate against other schools and in national competitions. We enjoy the privilege of being recognized by a vast multitude of schools and organisations who approach us to debate in their competitions, such as the ESU, which presents our students with new opponents on exciting topics. We have also begun to run debates between staff members on set topics. This helps promote more open discussion between staff members with students and promote the staff to also challenge the