England Schools Team has four of the five best speakers in the World

From 4 to 14 July 2006, the World Schools Debating Championships took place in Wales. Cardiff was the largest ever WSDC, with 36 participating countries. The English team of Lizzie Bauer, Kitson Symes, Jamie Susskind and Richard Trainor (coached by James Acton) put in an impressive performance, breaking 7th and reaching the quarter-finals before losing to Ireland. The tournament overall was won by Australia (for the fourth time in a row), who beat Ireland in the final, proposing the motion "This House believes democracy is the best form of government for every nation". It was a strong year for the rest of Britain and Ireland as well, with Ireland, Scotland and Wales breaking 2nd, 3rd and 5th respectively. There were exciting results for England from the individual speaker tab, in which four of the top five speakers were from England. Particular congratulations to Jamie Susskind for being ranked this year's top speaker.

England sent a large judging contingent (including three ESU staff) of Stephen Farrow, Sarah Monroe, Tara Mounce, Debbie Newman, James Probert, Harold Raitt, Trevor Sather and Tim Savin. Everyone very much enjoyed the opportunity to explore Wales (including visits to Welsh speaking schools) and to see debates of an extremely high standard. Applications for next year's team are now open - with Cardiff replaced as a venue by the rather more distant South Korea.

posted by Harold Raitt @ 4:10 PM |