Hampton’s Sixth Form linguists excelled in the Regional French Debating Competition, with two Hamptonians progressing to the National Final.
The annual competition, held at St Paul’s Girls’ School, involved 45 teams from schools from across the region. Hampton’s two debating teams were made up of Sixth Formers Caleb Weinstein, Ishaan Das, Omer Demiral and Aaran Thakore. The Francophiles debated the following motions:
- Les gouvernements des pays occidentaux devraient interdire l’exploitation de tout nouveau gisement de pétrole, gaz ou charbon.
Western governments should ban the exploitation of any new oil, gas or coal deposits. - La liberté d’expression dans la musique doit être totale.
There should be total freedom of expression in music. - La France devrait laisser passer tous les migrants qui veulent aller en Angleterre.
France should let through all migrants who want to go to England.
Both teams won all their debates in their respective groups, arguing with impressive style and exceptional oratorical skills. Omer and Aaran advanced to the platinum final, while Caleb and Ishaan progressed to the gold final, where the Hamptonians had to debate in favour of the unseen motion ‘Money does not equal happiness’ and displayed superb agility of thought alongside outstanding linguistic expertise. Caleb and Ishaan won their debate and progressed to the National Final, whilst Omer and Aaran impressed the judges, and were narrowly defeated by St Paul’s Girls’ School.
Together with the winners of the other regional heats, Caleb and Ishaan will now compete in the National Final of the Joutes Oratoires, which will take place in March at the French Institute, as part of their Semaine de la Francophonie.
Acting Head of French, Miss Natalie Noble, congratulated the Hamptonians on their impressive achievement:
Back to All Articlesthe Hamptonians impressed the judges with their superb level of French, capacity for critical thinking and range of convincing arguments in some extremely close and exciting debates. It was a joy to watch them perform and we are very proud of our linguists and their achievements!
