It's a Hat Trick!
We are so proud of our Year 11 Debating Team as they become District Champions which means The Park has retained the English Speaking Union Public Speaking Cup three years in succession. What a triumph!
Despite the lack of leisure time for today’s students who are hemmed in by modular exams, controlled assessments and coursework there is a small window of opportunity in late winter and early spring to do battle in the debating chamber. Yes, it is now high season for Debating, Public Speaking and Model United Nations.
Our senior Sixth Form team is already through to the second round of the ESU Mace Debating Competition and last week our Year 11 team went to Queen's College Taunton for the District Final of the ESU Public Speaking Competition. Seven other schools were represented including Chilton Cantelo, Kings College Taunton, Wellington School and Wells Cathedral School. Dominic chaired his meeting with wit, confidence and a nice line in self-deprecation, charming his audience and establishing a close and friendly rapport with his Speaker, a young lady from Millfield. Her claim that Beauty contests are degrading to women was challenged by Jeannette who, in a superb display of rhetorical gymnastics, argued that neo- or post-Feminists should honour women who choose to celebrate female empowerment and pride by parading their bodies.
It fell to Ellen to challenge another contemporary cliché, that Family Life is Doomed. After analysing changes in family life over the last half century she made a powerful case for accepting the inevitability of social change and for embracing new forms of family and community structure. She was the only Speaker in the whole competition who had the confidence to speak entirely without notes, an approach greatly appreciated by her audience who felt that she was talking to them rather than reading out a speech.
All three members of the team made a big impression and we were delighted that the judges shared the general opinion and declared them District Champions. This is the third year running that The Park has won this title, the only school ever to have accomplished the hat trick. We are very proud of Dominic, Ellen and Jeannette and look forward to their appearance in the South West Regional Final at Blundell’s School on Sunday March 4th.