Naas school wins Kildare debating competition
Main Debate Winners Scoil an Linbh Tosa Ballycane Naas Arron Dillon Kate Kennedy - Smyth, Doireann Duffy and Katie O Halloran with Jenny Fox, Senator Fiona O Loughlan and Willie O Donoghue
KILDARE young analytic minds showed their skills as Kildare Education Support Centre, in partnership with Concern Worldwide, ran the 2024-2025 Primary Schools’ Debating Festival, with support from Kildare Library Service.
Scoil an Linbh Isoa, in Ballycane, Naas took the honours against Buncscoil Bhríde, Rathangan in the debating final opposing the motion ‘In 10 years time, no country should be using fossil fuels’.
In the shield final, Presentation Girls School in Maynooth claimed the shield title in the final against Scoil na Naomh Uilig Newbridge debating the same topic.
Concern Worldwide has been coordinating the Primary Debates since 2011, in conjunction with Education Support Centres across Ireland, in order to engage young people in a meaningful way with some of the complex issues we work with.
Primary Debating is aimed at senior classes (4th to 6th) or for children aged roughly, 10-12 years old. Debating can help develop self-confidence, promote active listening and provide a platform for the use of skills such as analysis, deductive reasoning and flexible thinking. Debating is a fun, educational way of encouraging students to really engage with complex issues. Learning to debate teaches students how to apply critical analysis and how to prepare an argument using facts and sound research. It also teaches students valuable communication skills, such as how to deliver a speech and how to effectively defend the points they make.
A total of 16 schools from all over the Kildare Education Support Centre region took part in our local programme.
Kildare Education Support Centre offers the shield debates for the schools who get knocked out in the first-round of the event to ensure that all schools then get the opportunity to debate more than just once. The shield debate runs parallel to the main debate.
The standard of debating in the finals of both the shield debate and the main debate was exceptionally high and the adjudicator (Linda Golden) had a really difficult time in deciding the winning schools on the day.
Senator Fiona O’Loughlin was in attendance for the Main Debate and very kindly gave a short speech to the students before the debate began.
Georgina Eastaugh and Naomi Lanney of Concern Worldwide were also in attendance and presented the teams with their trophies and certificates.
Once again, the Concern Worldwide Primary Debates Programme proved to be a huge success with schools, teachers and students alike.
It is fantastic to see the culture of debating growing from strength to strength each year.
The schools are a credit to themselves for making the very most of the programme and ensuring their pupils are having a nourishing experience, building life-long skills whilst learning about the world around them.
