Mount St Mary’s Debating Students Return!

On Thursday 21st March, Mount St Mary’s Year 11 Debating Team competed against Cardinal Heenan, Abbey Grange and Guiseley School in The Womble Bond Dickinson/Leeds Salon Year 10 and 11 Competition Final at the Womble Bond Dickinson offices in Leeds.

Students spent weeks preparing for two debates: arguing for “Billionaires owning media companies is bad for democracy” and against “Monuments to controversial historical figures should remain”. All four students – Sedona Mechialle, Ola Krupa, Naemi Asmerom and Amelia Uminska – debated exceptionally well and were eloquent in the defence of their points.

Unfortunately, Cardinal Heenan were declared the overall winners, but this Year 11 team have been absolutely outstanding in their debating performance and we can’t wait to see what they accomplish as they leave MSM.

MSM hosts the Leeds Salon Debating Competition

Each year the Leeds Salon hosts debating competitions across the city using a challenging format usually reserved for sixth form students, with Mount St Mary’s participating since 2016.

On Wednesday 8th February Mount St Mary’s hosted one of the qualifying rounds for the competition, with our beautiful library providing the backdrop to welcome visiting judges and our competition UTC.

Arguing for the motion “In the digital age, we should not expect our online activities to remain private”, Amelia Uminska and Sedona Mechialle represented MSM in the first round. Both teams displayed excellent skill and research, but MSM were narrowly beaten in this round.

In the second round Naemi Asmerom and Miracle Bolingo put in an exceptional display arguing against the motion “Britain should pay reparations for its colonial past”, with their subject knowledge shining through, especially during interrogation from the judges. This gave them the upper hand and they were declared winners of the second round.

Overall, Mount St Mary’s were declared winners by the judges, with Naemi winning the award for Best Speaker for her outstanding performance, sending MSM through to the final.

On Wednesday 29th March, Miss Evans and Mr Hinchley took the students to the Royal Armouries to participate in the grand final. In the semi-final, Solane Pauni and Aiswarya Roy argued for the motion “Unhealthy lifestyles are not the business of government” against St Mary’s Menston. Although they displayed excellent resilience and ability, St Mary’s Menston were declared the winners.

All the students were participating in their first external debating competition and should be incredibly proud of what they achieved, with much to take away from the experience.

Well done MSM!

MSM vs Debate Mate vs Mott McDonald

Since 2016, Mount St Mary’s have been working with Debate Mate, an organisation aiming to increase debating within schools. For the first few years university mentors coached our students but this is now done by MSM staff using the Debate Mate strategies.

Last month 10 MSM students in Years 9 and 10 were invited to work with Debate Mate and Mott McDonald, a global engineering firm, in order to create initiatives to solve worldwide issues, in addition to introducing students to debating in the context of the workplace.

Firstly, students took part in a virtual session on Wednesday 16^th March where they engaged in debating activities before creating pitches for their initiatives with employees of Mott McDonald. Then on Tuesday 22^nd March, Miss Evans took the students to the Mott McDonald offices in Leeds City Centre to deliver their pitches, as well as receiving a tour of the offices and an insight into how the company operated on a day to day basis.

Students were praised by Mott McDonald staff both for their ingenuity and their conduct throughout the process. They were also offered the opportunity of working with Mott McDonald through work experience in the future.

MSM Students Compete In Bar Mock Trial

On Saturday 26^th March Miss Evans took a group of Year 10 and 11 students to Leeds Beckett University to compete in the Bar Mock Trial competition, where students take on the roles of lawyers, witnesses, jury and court staff in a trial; students had spent months preparing for this competition, while juggling school work and the pressures of GCSEs.

Students prepared two cases: in the first – R v Summers – the defendant was accused of witness intimidation and in the second – R v Piper – the defendant was accused of assault in a bar.

The competition was challenging, especially as most of the competitors were sixth formers, but students were well prepared and both the prosecution and defence teams delivered exceptional performances, with students winning 2 out of the 3 cases! It was also wonderful to see ex-Mount St Mary’s students competing for their new sixth form colleges on the day.

Students also had the opportunity to meet with the judges, many of whom participated in Bar Mock Trial (and competed against Mount St Mary’s) before becoming barristers. They were able to gain insight into the different routes into law and the realities of the profession.

For many students, it was their final public speaking competition before they leave Mount St Mary’s and they should be incredibly proud of what they have achieved over the last five years.

Amelia Uminska is Elected to
Youth Parliament!

Congratulations to Amelia Uminska, who has been elected by the young people of Leeds as a Member of the Youth Parliament!

Amelia stood for parliament with the campaign focus of “Tackling poverty by providing equipment and uniform for those students whose families can’t afford it to enable future academic success”. She is the first student from Mount St Mary’s to be elected to the Youth Parliament!

Young people between the ages of 11-18 in Leeds voted between 31^st January and 25^th February, with over 1600 votes cast across the city.

Thank you to Amelia’s campaign team who helped create posters and encouraged students to get involved, including running lunchtime sessions in IT rooms where students could vote. A special thank you also goes to the Young Leaders who gave students the opportunity to vote on Progress Review Day by taking laptops around to them while they were waiting for their appointments.

Mount St Mary’s hosts the Leeds Salon Years 10 & 11
Debating Competition

On Tuesday 1st February, Mount St Mary’s played host to the Leeds Salon Years 10 and 11 Debating Competition, welcoming Carr Manor Community School for the competition.

Amba Callaghan and Urvi Motolall represented MSM in the first round, arguing for the motion “We should accept the risk inherent in contact sports”. The teams were very evenly matched, but Amba and Urvi claimed victory in this debate.

Stephanie Akhigbe and Eleanor McQuillan represented MSM in the second round, arguing against the motion “Monuments to controversial historical figures should remain”. Once again, it was neck and neck throughout the debate, but Carr Manor claimed victory.

This meant with one round each, the two teams were tied and the decision was left to the judges to declare an overall winner. Carr Manor were narrowly declared the winners, with a split decision between the judges 2-1. However, Urvi Motolall was declared Best Speaker overall to reflect her outstanding performance in the competition.

All four students displayed exceptional skill and resilience, competing in their first debating competition in two years.

Well done MSM!