By Mrs Lincoln (English and Psychology Teacher)

This year, we entered the English Speaking Union Schools’ Mace, one of the oldest and largest debating competitions for secondary schools in England and Wales. On the evening of Tuesday 26th November, we hosted the first round here in the Assembly Hall with teams from five other local schools joining us to compete.

The BGS team consisted of Haram Sohail (Upper Sixth), Nawaal Qazi (Lower Sixth) and Mahdiyah Meghji (Year 11). They debated against a team from St Christopher’s School, arguing for the implementation of a four-day school week. The students were clearly well-prepared, presenting excellent arguments, rebuttals and summary speeches. It was also a pleasure to see other students from BGS willing to get involved with chair and timekeeper duties – a big thank you goes to Mia Vadgama (Lower Sixth), Lily Deng (Lower Sixth), Elyse Vickers (Upper Sixth), Noor Malik (Upper Sixth) and Hania Tauqeer (Year 11).

We’re delighted to say that, despite some fierce competition, we were one of three schools to make it through to the next round of the competition. The students got some useful individual feedback from the judges, which they can take forward with them to the next round.

We now look forward to the round two heats scheduled in January. Stay tuned to see how BGS fares!