On Tuesday 11th January 2022, the school had three teams compete in the Irish regional round of the Oxford Union Debating Competition. this debating competition is very highly regarded and is known as one of the most prestigious among school debating competitions.
The three teams representing The Institute of Education were comprised of 4th and 5th year students:
IOE 1: Yolanda Zhao (5th Year), Dui-Lan Sun (4th Year)
IOE 2: Sofia Keating-McCabe (5th Year), Zoe Morris (5th Year)
IOE 3: Edward DeBono (5th Year), Lucy Cronnelly (5th Year)
For the Irish regional round, the teams debated in a Mace format. This meant that they had only 15 minutes to prepare their approach to the topic they had received on the day. The two motions debated on the day were:
Round 1: This House prefers a world where, after COVID-19 is no longer a threat to public health and safety, working from home remains the norm.
Round 2: This House believes that liberal democracies should boycott major sporting events hosted by countries with known human rights abuses.
It is fascinating and commendable that our students are debating and helping to shift attitudes to current world events and issues, including the Covid-19 pandemic. It’s great to see our students excelling in debating and developing a vital skill set.
The great news is that one of the teams representing The Institute, IOE 3, were declared one of the winning teams at the event. As a result of this they will progress to debating in Oxford Union in the UK this March. We look forward to following their progress and seeing how they fair while debating in Oxford Union this March.
