Good start to the new year

Wednesdays are indeed the new Tuesdays Laurie and it seems Debating Society is now the cool place to be for Year 7s. As we kicked off our first debate of the year, we were very pleased to be joined this week by our new cohort of Year 7s. Existing Society members were few in number today (half a dozen at most) but we still managed to see one of our best attended 'normal' debates in the history of the society. Today's debate was attended by 24 audience members, most of whom were all Year 7s. This is promising stuff and will hopefully yield good results in terms of our future prospects in competitions.

Our first debate tackled the contentious issue of the summer; the case of the Lockerbie bomber. Our young Year 8s, Ben Wallace and Thomas Knight argued it was right to show compassion to Abeldbaset Ali al Megrahi and release him from jail. Whilst newcomer Mohammad Azizyan (stepping in at the last moment) and Sahan Bentotage argued that Mr al Megrahi did not deserve compassion. A lively Q&A session followed that saw many of our Year 7s get involved.

In the end the judges and the audience came to a split decision; the Opposition picking up the floor vote, 15 votes to 9 and the judges bonus point going to the Proposition. All agreed it was a great way to start the year.

Next week will see a planning session with a difference as we prepare our new members for their first debates. Proceedings start at 2.40pm, in L7 on Tuesday 30th September. A full list of forthcoming debates will be published at that point.

Wednesdays are the new Tuesdays...

The nights are drawing in and September marks the return of our debates. We kick off on Wednesday, 23 September 2009 with a brilliantly topical show-down on the subject of the Lockerbie bomber. Our newsletter will return then too.

And it's all change at the Union Society, as six of our most senior and experienced debaters have headed to the HeadStrong Club for another chapter in their debating careers. However, they've been duely succeeded by the wealth of debating talent already present among our Year 8 – 11 members, plus some promising newcomers from Year 7 and beyond.

Those debaters will now be taking each other on during Period Seven on Wednesdays, instead of last year's weekly Tuesday meetings.

What's more, former Society President, James Bartle MYP is joining the judging panel indefinitely, while Laurie Dudley will return to meetings in a month in some role or another.

If you'd like to find out more, browse our website or drop in on Wednesday from 14:40 to 15:30.

The coming weeks

Next week there will be a meeting of the Society, and all members are advised to attend as usual. Information will then be relayed about the following weeks. Thank you.

A United States of Europe?

It was Winston Churchill who first suggested the creation of a 'United States of Europe' back in 1946. Sixty-three years on it remains a matter of debate as to whether old Winston would have approved of the modern European Union. But tomorrow we will put the question of Europe to our own members to make up their minds as to what future they want for Europe.

Do they want a UKIP-supported withdrawal from the EU or a Liberal Democrat federal European superstate? Representatives of the five main European parties will pitch their visions for the future of Europe and answer questions on the economy, the Lisbon Treaty and much more in a Heaton Manor Union Society event tomorrow.

James Bartle MYP will represent the Conservatives, David Shepherd the Green Party, Saskia Neibig is representing UKIP, David Larke Labour and Thomas Knight will speak for the Liberal Democrats. All five will take questions from the floor in a Question Time style debate ahead of next months European Parliament elections on June 4th.

Adam Thompson will take the chair (no votes of confidence, we promise!) and everyone is welcome to attend and cast their vote in our mock European election.

Happy Easter!

Happy Easter from the Union Society. James hasn't been on here for a while, but we'll have a talk after Easter and hopefully this will be regular again. Understandably, James is very busy with GCSE revision at present so someone else may take over for a short period. In the meantime, have a fab holiday.

James' Easter message will become available on Good Friday, whilst the termly graph that shows debaters' progress is visible now. Click on it to see it in full...

A change to the previous billing

A fabulous debate today. This is just a quickie to inform blog readers that there has been a partial swap-round of the next few debates. Please visit the website, heatonmanorunion.org.uk, and click on Forthcoming debates to find out more.

Thawing the ice

Apologies for my recent absence and also for the delay in getting this week's blog post out.

If the cold doesn't scare members off, we'll hopefully be hoping to thaw the ice with a heated debate on the future of the Church of England tomorrow. The society will be considering the motion 'This House believes that the Church of England should be disestablished' at 2.45pm, H12, Heaton Manor School etc. etc.

Speaking for the proposition will be Sam Hunt, a former member of the society's competition squad who is an active campanologist at St George's CofE Church, Jesmond and will be hoping to gain extra debate experience in tomorrow's debate. Sam will be accompanied by David J Shepherd, another former competition squad member who hasn't debated for a while and will be hoping to get back in to the swing of things.

On the opposition bench is Chris Redfearn who was narrowly knocked down to fourth place following last week's debate. Chris is the leader of the school's Christian Union and who attends the evangelical Church of England establishment, Jesmond Parish Church. Accompanying Chris for their second consecutive appearance as a pair is James Bartle MYP who currently ranks at the top of the society's league and will be hoping to extend his seven point lead even further.

Tomorrow promises to be a highly intellectual and extremely interesting debate with strong teams on both sides.