Politics, Strategy and Smiles at the EYP Regional Finals

Eight students battled it out against six other schools on Wednesday 12^th February at the European Youth Parliament (EYP) Regional Heats. The event, a stalwart in the LP debating calendar, was convened by Old Leightonian and co-chair of the Thames Valley EYP chapter, Will Hand, former JBH contestant and committed Debating Matters co-curricular club member.

The Leighton Park participants, from Year 10 and above, were all novices to the EYP scene but that did not deter them from an excellent proposal as the second debate. The team was assigned the ‘CULT’ label, representing The Committee on Culture and Education.  Their proposal addressed the question ‘How can European governments best support their population in creating a healthy, supportive environment for all individuals to thrive in, no matter what gender they choose to identify as’. This topical issue focussed attention on the fact that in many societies, people who identify or outwardly express themselves as male are expected to be strong and emotionally repressed.

Following the proposal given by Antigoni and Louis (Lower Sixth) the other schools’ teams were able to oppose the motion, objecting to or agreeing with the suggestions made. The LP team frantically gathered together their collective thoughts furiously typing into a shared google doc on their laptops to bolster the concluding response delivered by Margot (Lower Sixth). Margot explained “Teams are get judged on the participation of all team members so everyone contributes to the same document and everyone needs to talk in your team, it’s not all on the same person.” Richard Duckett, Politics teacher, and David Hammond, Head of Science, who co-lead the Debating Matters hobby, were impressed by the standard of the contestants. “It definitely seems higher than previous years,” they reflected, ‘All the students are doing very well.”

There were a total of nine debates over the course of the day with proposals from Bloxham School, Reading Blue Coats School, Reading School, Wallingford School, Oxford International College and The Abbey School covering topics as diverse as economic success and juvenile delinquency. The Mayor of Reading, Councillor Glenn Dennis, delivered the closing remarks to the end of very successful event.

Margot concluded: “It was really fun and I enjoyed the general vibe of it. I like the talking and also I like hearing other people’s opinions. We were all gelling but also opposing at the same time which was quite an interesting experience.”  Carlota, a pre-Sixth boarder from Spain agreed: “I really liked it. It’s the first time I’ve done a proper debate in English. It was scary at the beginning but it was really fun.” Annabel, the youngest LP participant, commented, “Because there was so much research you could only really research in depth the one that you were proposing and maybe one or two that you wanted to oppose so there was quite a lot of thinking on your feet trying to skim read and pick out the most important facts. The first debate was quite confusing, I hadn’t quite fully understood what was going on but it was nice to experience a new style of debating and get to grips with it as the morning went on.”  Antigoni concluded, “It’s been a little bit intense but I like the fact that everyone is really passionate about what they’re talking about, I think that is that’s really important. A debate can happen but the fact that people are engaging and have that personal inclusion; that’s. really cool and works really well. It’s been really enjoyable.”