St. Crispin’s are the winners of the sixth annual Wokingham Schools Debating Competition. At the final round of the contest, held on Friday at Wokingham Town Hall, St. Crispin’s pupils Carrie Mathieson and Laura Webber fended off a challenge from Luckley Oakfield’s Alexandra Bray and Lucy Hammond by arguing in favour of the motion “This House believes that anyone who wants to come and live in the United Kingdom should be allowed to do so”.

As a result of their victory in the contest Carrie and Laura won the John Redwood Cup for debating for their school, as well as an overhead projector kindly donated by 3M. The teams from St. Crispin’ and Luckley Oakfield will also have the chance to see real parliamentary debating in the New Year, when they will be invited by Wokingham MP John Redwood to visit the Palace of Westminster and watch Prime Minister’s Questions from the visitors’ gallery.

During the contest both teams put forward passionate arguments in favour of open and closed door immigration policies, before taking contributions from the audience. Previous topics for debate in the competition have been equally contentious subjects, like bankers’ bonuses, footballers’ pay, freedom of speech and British history. The final round was presided over by John Redwood, who acted as “Speaker” for the evening. The contest was judged by Cllr. Norman Jorgensen, Donald MacDonald from RBS and Ian Graham from Clifton Ingram.

At the end of the final round a short prize giving ceremony was held, where John Redwood presented certificates and House of Commons pens to all those who took part, as well as engraved plates to the runners-up.

Speaking about the contest, John Redwood said: “I would like to congratulate Carrie and Laura on a fantastic performance. The final motion was very contentious and they argued a difficult and, perhaps unpopular, case, with skill and finesse. They had obviously put a lot of work into preparing for the contest and this was reflected in the clarity and eloquence of their contributions”.

“I would also like to acknowledge the hard work all the other teams put into the contest. Once again we saw very high standards from Wokingham’s secondary schools”.

“The debating competition teaches valuable skills such as public speaking, the ability to formulate arguments on complex subjects and express them clearly, and the ability to think on one’s feet. These are valuable life skills and will be appreciated by any future employer”.

“I am grateful to 3M, Bill Clark and Clifton Ingram, whose generous financial support made this year’s contest possible”.

For more information please contact Carl Thomson on 020 7219 4205