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Two sixth-formers have achieved success in the English Speaking Union’s prestigious Mace debating competition and now go through to the next round.

Akshat Sharma and Mipham Samten, both of Year 12, were chosen to represent the Elizabethan Union – QE’s senior debating society – for the first round of the Mace at Kingsbury High School, where they competed against leading schools such as Haberdashers’ Aske’s Boys’.

They won their places in the next round with their successful arguments in favour of the proposition, This house would add e-sports to the Olympic Games, in one of the four debates held during the evening.

Academic Enrichment Tutor and Geography teacher Helen Davies said Akshat got things off to a strong start with an “inspirational introduction”, which highlighted the 43 million online viewers who recently watched an e-sports tournament taking place in the US. In fact, Akshat pre-empted many of the opposition’s points before the first opposition speaker had even taken to the floor.

He acknowledged that to be included in the Olympics, e-sports would first have to be recognised as a sport by the International Olympic Committee and he therefore set out reasons why this should happen. E-sports fulfilled the IOC’s meritocratic ideals, since they were played at internet cafés by many people in less developed countries, with one poor Pakistani citizen recently winning an e-sports tournament (and netting prize money of $6.3m).

For his part, Mipham stressed the need to move with the times and overcome outdated, stereotypical views of e-sports participants as “overweight men playing games”. They were, on the contrary, true athletes and, furthermore, they would help attract younger generations of supporters for the Olympics, promoting Olympic values to a wider audience.

In his summing-up, Akshat strongly challenged some of the major arguments against the motion. He pointed to shooting as a precedent – an example of an Olympic sport that required accuracy and skill, rather than great physical fitness. He also had an answer for those who criticised e-sports as too “gory”, highlighting the aggression inherent in boxing and fencing.

Fifty pupils from Year 8 tested their debating skills under pressure during a visit to a leading girls’ school.

The QE boys joined an equal number of girls from The Henrietta Barnett School in Hampstead for the competitive debating symposium. After the motions to be debated were announced, the mixed groups of boys and girls then had just half-an-hour to research their topics before the debates started.

The motions included: This House believes the media does not have a right to intrude in the lives of public figures and This House would impose quotas for women in workplaces where they are under-represented.

The symposium was one of a regular series of academic enrichment events for Years 8-10 held jointly with HBS.

Nisha Mayer, QE’s Head of Academic Enrichment, said: “Students were very engaged and enthused throughout the morning. We lay great emphasis on the importance of developing oracy – the ability to communicate well using the spoken word. At events such as this symposium, pupils gain early exposure to the need to articulate their arguments. They learn to think on their feet and begin to appreciate the importance of keeping abreast of current affairs and societal issues – an interest that we seek to cultivate both during lesson time and in extra-curricular activities.

“Because of our single-sex environment at QE, there are also benefits for the boys in interacting and sharing ideas with peers from a girls’ school: we are very fortunate to have such a mutually advantageous partnership.”

After the initial debates in ‘break-out’ rooms, all 100 boys and girls joined together for the final, where the best six debaters did battle, each receiving certificates.

A QE team gave a strong performance in the second round of a prestigious debating competition, only narrowly missing out on a place in the regional final.

Mipham Samten and Akshat Sharma, both Year 12 pupils, received positive feedback from the English-Speaking Union adjudicators in the Schools’ Mace competition after proposing the motion: This House would allow upper-rate taxpayers to redirect a significant proportion of their taxes to charities of their choice.

In their debate at the event hosted by The St Marylebone CE School, the pair faced girls from Francis Holland School, Sloane Square – the independent school which eventually went on to the West London Regional Final.

Academic Enrichment Tutor and Geography teacher Helen Davies said: “The boys debated very strongly, but unfortunately only one of the six participating teams was able to progress to the next stage.”

The ESU Schools’ Mace is the oldest and largest debating competition for schools in England.

In detailed feedback, the judges said that Akshat had “excellent expression and delivery and had been able to bring in humour – difficult in an economic debate”. They also praised Mipham, saying that he had done well, particularly since he was a deputy, in using “good material”, with a “well-structured and sign-posted speech”.

The judges had stressed that the point of the competition was not necessarily to win the argument, but to present a detailed case and provoke an interesting debate.

QE debaters have reached the European Youth Parliament national finals after putting in an excellent performance at the South East regional round.

Eight Year 12 boys headed to the European Commission’s London building in Smith Square for the EYP South East forum, where they and teams from two independent schools – St Paul’s and Guildford High – were chosen to go through to the national event later in the year.

Congratulating the team on its success, Academic Enrichment Tutor Helen Davies said the jury had given them very positive feedback: “The boys worked exceptionally well as a group, having done their research well; they made interesting points, often bringing new lines of argument into the debate.”

The QE sixth-formers defended a Committee on Security and Defence (SEDE) resolution which proposed steps towards greater integration and co-operation between the armed forces of European Union countries.

The 40-minute debate began with an opening speech from Akshat Sharma in which he stressed that, in view of the aggression it faces from countries including Russia and North Korea, the EU needs both to increase its spending on defence and to improve the level of co-operation between EU countries, so that the increased funding is spent effectively.

His stance was duly opposed by a speaker from Haberdashers’ Aske’s Girls’ School, to which Mipham Samten then responded. After further debate, Mipham gave a summation of the QE team’s arguments: “Mipham put a great deal of work into the team’s preparation and gave a leading contribution,” Miss Davies said.

The subsequent vote on the resolution was 63 against, and 14 for; Miss Davies pointed out that, in fact, no resolutions were passed throughout the whole day.

After the debates, the jury provided general feedback to all the teams, praising them for their enthusiastic participation and their research.

As well as Akshat and Mipham, the team comprised: Ibrahim Al-Hariri; Parth Gosalia; Shivam Masrani; Laurie Mathias; Anake Singh and Mudit Tulsianey.

Boys from QE and pupils from a leading girls’ school had just 45 minutes to prepare for a special series of debates.

One hundred Ye ar 8 boys and five QE staff headed off to The Henrietta Barnett School for the afternoon of workshops chaired by the pupils themselves.

Academic Enrichment tutor Helen Davies said: “The purpose was to provide challenge for the students and put them in a situation where they were required to take academic risks.”

They therefore had to research debating points and evidence in the 45 minutes after they were given the topics, which were:

• • This house believes that creating new grammar schools, as proposed by the current government, is a good idea,

• • This house believes that friends are more important than family,

• • This house believes that students need more time to discuss religious and political beliefs in school, as part of the curriculum,

• • This house believes that secondary school students should have more choice in the subjects they study at school. 

The debates took place in four rooms and each was supervised by a member of staff and by an HBS sixth-former.

“The HBS sixth-formers worked very well with all the students and gave a short piece of feedback to every Year 8 student at the end of each debate, which was all thoughtful and constructive,” said Miss Davies.

Pupils engaged well in all the debates, Miss Davies said, with interesting points being raised from the floor. “QE and HBS students clearly enjoyed working together and sharing their ideas with students from another school.

“In debate 2, students brought up some interesting ideas to do with families which suffer from domestic abuse and child carers and, in debate 4, some interesting subjects were suggested that could be taught in a wider curriculum at secondary schools.”

At the end of the day, the best eight debaters overall were asked to prepare for a final debate – and this time they were given just 15 minutes to prepare. The debate took place in front of all the other pupils, with all of them “rising to the challenge very well”.

“The event was an excellent opportunity for our boys to interact with students from another school in a challenging but supportive environment, where they were required to develop and voice their own opinions. It is exciting to see our partnership with HBS expanding this year, so a greater number of boys are able to benefit from these types of events,” Miss Davies concluded.