For the last three years the Debate Society has had success at the regional and national European Youth Parliament events. This year the debates moved online, and a number of our Year 12 students took part in a range of debates over three days including:

Time To Replace The Batteries

With the COVID-19 pandemic raising questions about the unprecedented dangers of animal agriculture and a proposal to ban factory farming achieving 100,000 signatures in Switzerland, what steps should European Countries take in their animal agriculture policies to ensure both human and animal welfare?

Speak My Language

With predictions that half of the world’s 6000 languages will be extinct by 2050, and many minority languages within the EU such as Gaeilge and Cornish facing similar fates, what steps can the EU take to protect and develop the presence and education of minority languages across Member States?

One of the Year 12 students involved commented: “All in all, this experience was one I am extremely glad to be able to have taken part in, for various reasons including: meeting lovely people who represented their schools well, working in a positive atmosphere where everyone was encouraged to participate and being involved in a really professional, online event where views were challenged and developed in an inclusive way.”

Congratulations to Samuel Kane and Alexander Price who have since been contacted by the European Youth Parliament with a view to being involved in further national-level debates.