On 19^th November, 3 Sixth Form students – Finley Jarrett, Dominika Maruszczak and Sabe Santhosh – took part in a Debating Competition held at Tonbridge School. The students were the ‘Proposition’ for the motion ‘This House will abolish trial by Jury’. The students researched and presented a high-quality debate in which they presented recent and historical examples of cases miscarriages of justice, huge costs or jury bias and proposed alternative systems, guided by Ms K. Denny and myself. All 3 were a credit to themselves and excellent ambassadors for the school. The opposing team – Sutton Valence School – were experienced. However, our students were able to justify their arguments succinctly and eloquently. All the other teams had competed in this event before, but all 3 students held their own and formulated some strong arguments. The competition was organised by the English Speaking Union as an annual competition. Next year, I am certain we will be even more successful. It was an amazing experience for us all and we learnt a great deal. Huge congratulations to the students who took part – they should be very proud of themselves.

Melissa King (Academic Literacy and Debating Co-ordinator).