By D&DLS. 26 Feb 2018.
The first year of the School Debate Competition kicked off in December and is now in full swing, it will culminate in a Grand Final on the 7th March 2018. The competition has been organized by the Derby and District Law Society, e4e and Derby University Law School. Eight Derby City Schools are taking part in at least two debates each, they all have two teams participating.
Young Lawyers from DJL and local firms have been into the Schools to introduce the competition and talk to the children about speaking in public generally. They have proved to be great young ambassadors of our profession. Students from the Law and Business Schools at the University have been going into the Schools to mentor the children on how to present their arguments and prepare generally.
The debates themselves have been very close with the children debating such topics as whether humanity should fear developments in artificial intelligence and whether technology will solve societies environmental issues.
One of our volunteer Judges, Sue Jennings, who is Head of Law at Derby University said “the amount of work and research the children have done in preparing for the debate is incredible”. Other Judges Ben Lawson (Solicitor at Geldards) and Martin Salt (Solicitor at Right Legal) agreed that the standard of the prepared speeches was high but the children were less confident in presenting their counter arguments. It will be exciting to see how the children develop as we start to hear their second debates.
The Final is on Wednesday 7th March 2018 from 4pm in the Court Room at the Law School of Derby University if anyone would like to come and watch.