D ebating
Reaching the top five at both the
Oxford and Cambridge competitions
When I’m asked about the most challenging aspect
of debating, the motivational words of a chief
adjudicator came to my mind: ‘You’re in a room with
a partner who you think has the same set of ideas as
you, but doesn’t. With six other people, hell-bent on
proving you wrong. With an adjudicator who is trying
to be unbiased, but is probably failing at doing so.’
But if there’s anything the Debating Society were to
agree upon, it would be that the debating experience
has formed an integral part of our Sevenoaks
experience. The Friday night debate sessions under
the guidance of our coach, Thomas Simpson, who
was a top international debater when he was at
Cambridge, served as the highlight of my weekly
routine, as I’m sure it did for many others.
“You’re in a room with six other people hell-bent on proving you wrong.”
The wealth of knowledge we acquired during those
sessions was regularly put to the test in competitions,
the most memorable of which for me is the LSE
schools’ tournament in Michaelmas 2017, where
my partner (Yasmine Kanagalingam) and I narrowly
missed out on winning the tournament after an
agonising 4-3 split on the judging panel. Indeed,
the society’s efforts have culminated in the most
successful debating year for Sevenoaks School, with
two sets of teams qualifying for both the Oxford and
Cambridge finals for the first time, and teams ranking
amongst the top five in both competitions (Yuan
Wong and Crystal Lee in Oxford, and Yasmine and
me in Cambridge).
The recent Imperial Schools Debating Competition
saw a Sevenoaks school team (Yasmine Kanagalingam
and Crystal Lee) finishing third, while another
(Yasmine and Ned Geake) narrowly missed out on
qualifying for the semi-final at Imperial’s Science
and Technology open debating competition for
university students. The success enjoyed by the school
in the circuit this year extended beyond Sixth Form
debaters, with a Middle School team (Ellie Gilbert-
Bair and Tasha Dambacher) reaching the finals of the
International Competition for Young Debaters.
Kartik Iyer, Upper Sixth
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