Hampton’s Sixth Form linguists excelled in the Regional French Debating Competition.
The annual competition, normally held at St Paul’s Girls’ School, took place virtually this year with 39 teams from 15 schools competing from across the region. A highly anticipated event in the French department’s diary, the debating competition is of the highest standard. Hampton’s impressive debating teams were made up of Sixth Formers, Finlo Cowley, Eduardo Crespo-Maclennan, Nayaaz Hashim and Patrick Helm. The Francophiles discoursed on the following motions of debate:
- En période de crise sanitaire, les gouvernements doivent avoir toute latitude de restreindre les libertés individuelles (During a public health crisis, governments must have complete freedom to restrict/limit our individual freedoms)
- L’intelligence artificielle est une menace pour l’humanité (Artificial intelligence is a threat to humanity)
- La croissance verte est un leurre (The (notion of a) “Green Revolution” with economic growth is a (dangerous) delusion)
Armed with convincing arguments, the Hamptonians pitted their wits against teams from St Paul’s, Eton, Latymer Upper and Dulwich College. Displaying exceptional linguistic and oratorical skills, our senior linguists debated over three hours, and judges were impressed by their command of the target language and their agility of thought. Nayaaz and Patrick won all three of their debates in convincing fashion and will now compete in the regional final during which they will debate unseen motions. Eduardo and Finlo were unlucky to just miss out on a final place, after victories in two of their three debates.
Head of Modern Languages, Mr Fred Chaveneau, congratulated the Sixth Form linguists on their debating prowess:
Back to All ArticlesI am so proud of how the Hampton boys conducted themselves. They were very humble in victory and remarkable ambassadors for the School. Their ability to express themselves so fluently was astonishing and to be able to debate at such a high standard requires immense skill and confidence. A fully deserved chapeau to all!
