Over Friday 6th to Saturday 7th December, six secondary pupils debated with schools from across the world as part of the COBIS International Schools Virtual Debate Competition 2024. Motions ranged from the political and economic, such as whether we should implement carbon credits for individuals or regret the rise of the gig economy, to more philosophical matters, such as whether technology is making us less human.
 
In addition to requiring extensive preparatory research for two pre-prepared motions, the competition challenged the team to think on their feet with two unseen motions. For these, they had to pull together four full speeches in only 20 minutes, with no access to external resources. No simple task!
 
The team performed fantastically over the two days, not only winning three out of the four debates they competed in, but also placing 11th overall against nearly 40 schools. Congratulations to the whole team for their outstanding performance: Maria Silva Santos, Joseph King, Nicole Soares, Margarita Vicente, Carolina Debs and Manuela Campos.
 
In addition to the excellent collective performance, three students were also singled out for individual commendation. Joseph, for his excellent rebuttal and engagement with the opposing team’s arguments, was recognised with a Star Speaker award, putting him in the top 5 speakers of the competition. Maria and Nicole were also nominated for Star Speaker awards. Nicole for her excellent speech structure, rebuttal and use of tone/gesture, and Maria for an exceptional summary speech in which she seamlessly integrated rebuttal with the framing of her side as winners.