December Newsletter Final 2020 | Page 12

Issue Number 10 | December 2020
Written by Kathryn Muir , S6
On Thursday 19 th November , Gregor Blair , S6 and myself ( Kathryn Muir , S6 ) took part in round one of the Donald Dewar Debate Tournament 2020 .
The Donald Dewar Debate Tournament is Scotland ’ s largest annual schools debating tournament .
Established in 1999 ,
the
Donald
Dewar
Memorial
Debate
Tournament
is
dedicated
to
the
former
First
Minister
Donald Dewar MSP . It
is run annually by the
Law Society Scotland ,
with 64 teams from
across
Scotland ’ s
secondary
schools
entering
the
first
rounds in November
resulting in only one
successful
team
being crowned the
winner at the final in March . There are 4 rounds to compete in , including the first , second , semi-final and finals round .
Our 2020 experience
in the Donald Dewar
Memorial
Debate
Tournament has so far
been
a
successful
one . We flourished in
the first round against
Clydebank
High
School ,
St
Mary ’ s
Music
School
and
High
School
of
Glasgow , winning the
debate
and
progressing alongside
Clydebank
High
School to the second
round .
The second round will happen in January 2021 and in preparation for this , we have taken part in the St Andrew ’ s Day Debate Tournament
on
Monday
30 th
November .
The St Andrew ’ s Day
Debate is organized
and ran by English
Speaking
Union
Scotland ,
usually
hosted in the Scottish
Parliament . However ,
this year it was hosted
on Microsoft Teams
with
schools
and
students
from
secondary
schools
across
Scotland
taking part in various
debating rounds .
Gregor and I were
successful in all the
round leading up to
the final of the day ,
gaining
one
of
4
places in the final of
the
day .
This
experience
allowed
us
to
refine
our
debating
skills
and
gain
some
more
experience
for
the
next round of the
Donald
Dewar
Memorial Debate in
January 2021 .
12