Debating Competition

Me during one of the debates.

On the 10th March, four of us from my Sixth form college took part in the Friends of the Earth debating competition against two other local colleges. For the past few weeks we swatted up, did research on the topics we would be debating and wrote out opening statements.
There were three rounds of the debate and we did not know until five minutes before which of the topics given we would be debating or whether we would be debating for or against.

Our team had to debate

• For the statement- "The world doesn’t need to produce more food; it just needs to waste less"
  
• Against the statement- "Air pollution can only be tackled by prioritising public transport"

We won the first debate against a local college. We were really proud of ourselves as it was the first time most of us had ever debated and it meant we went straight to the finals. I was surprisingly not nervous though am unsure why. Our team went into the competition thinking it would just be a bit of fun and a new experience. However, after winning the first debate we knew we had a chance so were determined to win.
In the finals we were against the first team again, as they won the second round. Our team had a rough start with the wrong intro being read however we answered, with confidence and surety, all the questions that the other team fired at us.
Waiting for the judges decision was tense but we were certain the other team had won. Much to our surprise our college was announced the winner. We won the trophy and £100 to be split between our team. We were so proud and went home on an unexpected high.
It was such a great experience and I would love to take part in more debates in the future.

Comment below if you have ever taken part in a debate/public speaking experience. I'd love to hear your experience and what it was like for you.

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