St Maurice’s squad set for debate

Luke Macphee and Adam McGirr of St Maurice’s High won through in the first round of the Law Society of Scotland’s prestigious national debating tournament, staged towards the end of last year.

Now they are preparing to take part in the second round heats of the Donald Dewar Memorial Debating Tournament after their success, which involved debating the motion ‘This House believes the UK should leave the EU’.

The opening rounds of the tournament saw 128 teams from 97 Scottish schools putting their powers of persuasion to the test in the biggest schools debating tournament in Scotland.

Heather McKendrick, careers and outreach manager at the Law Society, said: “Many schools now have debating clubs and they really encourage pupils to learn how to build convincing arguments and give them a voice to express their views and opinions.

“Debating is a great skill to have and it’s been really encouraging to see so many schools entering teams in tournament this year.”

If the St Maurice’s team win this month’s battle of wits they’ll go through to the contest’s semi-finals in spring – and then, they hope, to the grand final in June.

The Law Society awards the first prize of £1,000 and the top two teams will also share educational books worth £500, donated by event sponsor, Hodder Gibson.

The 2013/14 winners and runners up are featured in a Law Society video about the tournament which is available to watch online: www.lawscot.org.uk/debating