English speaking union debate competition

On Wednesday 27th November, three members of our Debating Club, Eanna Ferguson, Alice Summerfield and Grace Lawrence, represented d’Overbroeck’s in the first round of the annual English Speaking Union (‘ESU’) Debating Competition.

The debate was hosted at Headington School, and involved local schools. The best 3 teams on the night would go through to round two in the new year. As you can see, we were up against tough opposition. All the teams on the night were well prepared, with coherent and fluently delivered speeches.

The motions and teams are as follows:

This house would make voting compulsory Proposition: Cheney School 

Opposition: St Clare’s Oxford

This house would limit each person to one return flight per year Proposition: Headington School 

Opposition: Oxford High School

This house would abolish trial by jury Proposition: St Edward’s School 

Opposition: d’Overbroeck’s For d’Overbroeck’s, it was a special night for Grace, as she was both returning to her former school, and making her public competition debut.

Similarly, Eanna, though experienced in other forms of debating, was making her ‘ESU’ debut. After a 15-minute deliberation, the judge announced the final results. The three teams to go through to round two are..[drum roll please..]..Headington, St Edwards and…d’Overbroeck’s. Roll on round two!