Yesterday morning, North Georgetown Secondary School (NGSS) dominated the Bishops’ High School (BHS) by eight points during the Semifinals of the JOF Haynes Debating Competition.
They will now face St. Stanislaus College in the finals at a date to be decided by the Ministry of Education.
Ashley Wilkinson of NGSS was adjudged best-speaker for the third time in a row.
The two schools addressed the moot: “Climate Change is the greatest threat facing humanity today”, with NGSS (led by Mareeka Caesar and backed by Ashley Wilkinson and Bianca Skekel) proposing while the BHS (led by Michael Brutus and backed by Kyra Adams and Leshaunte Berkeley) opposed.
Yesterday’s debate was judged by Celeste James-Williams (Chief Judge) of New Campbellville Secondary School, Elizabeth Dyer of St. Winefride’s Secondary, and Ronella Harris of South Ruimveldt Secondary. According to an official at the competition, the judges criticized the opposing team for not correctly interpreting the moot, placing emphasis on the words “greatest” and “today”. Both teams were advised to memorise their speeches in future since some of them were found to be reading a lot during the debate. The judges also advised that the participants spend more time practicing to pronounce words with which they were unfamiliar.
The team behind the success of NGSS to date is the school’s English Department whose teachers spent time proofreading speeches and mentoring the participants. Yesterday’s debate was held at the school of the proposing team.
NGSS defeated Christ Church Secondary School in the first round, Queen’s College in the second round and the New Central High School in the third round.
