Sixth Former Sam Collier, as a member of the England team, enjoyed great success in the World Schools’ Debating Championship 2012, held in Cape Town, South Africa, having come second on the overall speakers’ tab, which essentially makes him the second best speaker in the world at schools’ level. Forty‐eight countries from around the globe fielded teams at this prestigious competition, which has been held annually since its inception in 1988.
The teams, comprised of four debaters and one alternate, competed in eight preliminary rounds of debates, with motions ranging from ‘This House believes that newly democratised Arab nations should not allow religious parties to participate in elections’ to ‘This House believes that the police should use racial profiling to fight crime’. The England squad won seven of its eight initial debates, and went on to defeat Lithuania in the octo‐final, debating the motion ‘This House believes that governments should create schools which teach in endangered indigenous languages’. They opposed the motion ‘This House believes that Gay rights organizations should out gay public figures’ against a strong New Zealand team, and progressed to the semi‐final round, where they faced Wales but, unfortunately, were defeated.
Scotland and Wales featured in the grand final, with Scotland emerging victorious, having opposed the motion ‘This House regrets South Africa's decision to use the Truth and Reconciliation Commission rather than prosecuting perpetrators of crimes committed under Apartheid’, with Archbishop Desmond Tutu chairing.