This evening, Friday 15th March 2024, each house will go to John of Gaunts Kitchen to take part in the annual House Debating Competition. The use of John of Gaunts for debating continues a school tradition as Canford's first debating society meetings were held in John of Gaunts Kitchen when the school opened in 1923. As pupils prepare for this, we take a look back at the House Debating Competition of 2005.
This is what Mark Rathbone had to say at the time:
The John O’Gaunt Society’s 2005 House Debating Competition reached its climax on 2 December. Ten teams, representing all the school’s Houses, had competed in the first round, debating issues ranging from anti-terrorism legislation to whether 4x4s should be banned, and four teams, Beaufort, Court, Lancaster and Salisbury, got through to the final.
Lancaster’s Richard Booth and Matt Jones, and Andy Gibson and Tom Smith from Court debated the motion ‘This House welcomes the recent official visit to Britain of President Hu Jintao of China’. The second motion, ‘This House opposes any attempt to change the first-past-the-post voting system for elections to parliament’, was proposed by Katie Bentley and Conny Batho of Beaufort House and opposed by Salisbury’s Dan Steene and Chris Beaven.
All the teams acquitted themselves well and there were lively floor debates on both motions. The judges, Mr Bruce MacFarlane and Mrs Janette Wallis had a difficult time determining the winners. After much soul-searching, they announced that, for the first time in the competition’s 13-year history, there were joint winners – Lancaster and Salisbury – a fitting end to a very hotly-fought contest.
Good luck to all pupils taking part, as we wait to see which house will come out on top this time around!
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