Propose The Motion

It’s a warm Monday evening in April. In a car park at Leicester University the only noticeable noise is coming from nine people singing “We are the champions” at the top of their lungs.

After a good few months of manic preparation, drilling and panicking, ‘Team Geek’ took on three other well established schools in this years’ “Debating MATTERS” central regional final to fight for the chance to make the cut for the prestigous ‘national final’.

In a tentative first round, Laura Pritchard and Grace Barr took to the floor to argue that “There should be NO limits on artistic expression.” Being two of the newest recruits, coming in at this stage was a big ask; especially with so much to play for… However, in true style, they held their own convincing the judges that putting limits on art is not the way to go! Still, the judges weren’t making our lives easy this year and all of us came out feeling slightly dejected at the feedback received.

Even more determined to pull it back, Anna Muncey and Ropa Rusere jumped headlong into their next round, and showed everyone watching that Kings Norton certainly were a force to be reckoned with. By the end of the debate, we were sure that they’d won over the judges and convinced the audience that India and China are wrong “to resist binding Co2 emissions targets” – but as is the nature of the competition, it was then a waiting game to find out if we had won a place in the final debate of the day.

The tea break before the announcement was a bit of an emotional rollercoaster, with all the team members feeling the pressure mount. Having received very mixed feedback from the judges but an audience vote in their favour, the team expected the worst.

The decision then came that Kings Norton had won BOTH of their debates and so were automatically through to the final round. Cue panic!

Though the last round had us all on tenterhooks, we knew that the teams’ fate couldn’t be resting in more capable hands. Anna and Chloe worked seamlessly together throughout, arguing that “Trial by jury is the best guarantor of justice”. They were praised by the judges for their obvious depth of knowledge and confidence. After ten (very long) minutes, the judges emerged, they had made their decision.

The only words that mattered after that were: “we are awarding the win to Kings Norton.” At that point it became obvious how much this meant to the team – emotions ran high as everyone hugged it out and the team collected their well earned prizes.

Five days later and it still hasn’t sunk in, “Team Geek” have lived up to their name and are off to the national finals later on this year to see if they can bump up their title from “top debating team in the central region”, to “national winners”.

Watch this space.