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English Debating Club
English Debating Club

Debating Results June 2011

The June 2011 Debating Tournament at Bertha-von-Suttner-Oberschule comprised 8 schools from Berlin and Brandenburg with over 60 speakers.
The Juniors came in 6th place, while the Seniors came in 2nd and 4th place overall. Out of the 60+ speakers, seven of our pupils were voted into the Top Ten ranking of "Best speaker": 2nd: Tom Knoll, Jana Riecke 4th: Nina Jones, Roberta Huldisch 5th: Lawrence Conrad 7th: Konrad Heinz 8th: Melissa Paraskevaidis
The junior team consisted of: Douglas Rouse Nils Brüning Melissa Alhan Chandni Schattenfroh Gregory Chang
The seniors teams consisted of: Roberta Huldisch Nina Jones Melissa Paraskevaidis Jana Riecke Jennifer Kirke Konrad Heinz Lawrence Conrad Moritz Kiermeier Tom Knoll Well done to all concerned!

Berlin-Brandenburg Debating Contest

Berlin-Brandenburg Debating Tournament  January 2011 Schiller sent a junior and a senior team to the Berlin-Brandenburg Debating Contest  in the Leibniz Oberschule on the 27th January 2011.  Juniors The juniors (all comprising of 7th graders) won 2 out of 3 debates against 10th graders.  They came second in the tournament, which was won by the Bertha-von-Süttner Oberschule.   Nils Brüning from Schiller was the 3rd best speaker. Melissa Alhan also from Schiller was the 2nd best speaker. Seniors The seniors won 2 out of 3 debates.  They came second in the tournament, which was won by the Leibniz Oberschule.  Our debaters have been invited to take part in the German Debating Society Tournament in Stuttgart which takes place in June 2011. Well done to all concerned!

Berlin-Brandenburg Debating Tournament  June 2010
Schiller sent a junior and a senior team to the Berlin-Brandenburg Debating Contest  in the Bertha-von-Suttner Oberschule on the 17th June 2010.   The teams enjoyed a very high standard of debate, all the more impressive by the fact that most students were debating in English as their first foreign language. The junior team consisted of: Sophie Steinkat Chiara Jancke Insa Ellerbroek Nathalie Gloveli Luisa Laube Mina Shirazi.   Congratulations to Sophie, who was the fourth best speaker in the junior league.   Our senior team consisted of Radha Diallo Ayanga Edubio Carmen Sumadiwiria   Congratulations to all three: Carmen was judged to be best speaker, Ayanga second best and Radha was fourth best.  It was a very close team contest – the home team Bertha-von-Suttner won all three competitions (also the impromptu debate School should stop for the World cup against us) which meant they pipped us to the line for the best team. However, we can console ourselves that we received the highest number of points awarded to the senior teams.The last Debating Contest took place on January 29th, 2009 at the Gabriele-von-Bülow-Schule.    Are you interested in discussing, argumenting and sharing ideas about important topics and current affairs with others? Then the Debating Society is for you. We meet once a week after school to practice debating and organise our debating teams. To participate, you need to be able to express yourself in English and be a student of the Oberstufe.   In the end, teams from different schools come together and compete against each other in a debating contest. It is a thrilling experience to be part of this contest and it is not just about winning and loosing. In the first place we are there to meet with students of different schools and debate in a friendly atmosphere. You and your team will receive the topics of the debate beforehand, so you won't go unprepared.   Our school, the Schiller Gymnasium, was very successful in the debating contest last year. Our 11th graders made it to the second place and our 12th graders to the first place. We had a fun time and we will always remember it. If you are interested in joining the Debating Society, please speak to your English teacher.

The English Debating Club

The English Debating Club usually meets every Wednesday with Frau Brown for two hours of debating, public speaking and acting skills. Twice a year teams participate in a debating competition with Leibniz Gymnasium, Bertha-von-Süttner Gymnasium and other schools in Berlin. Despite little preparation due to a multitude of factors, Louise Bartlett and Kevin Hiller won the Best Speaker's award (First and Second Place respectively) at the Debating Competition which took place at the Leibniz Gymnasium on the 27th of January 2010. In 2009 our students had this to say about their experiences: "Our school, the Schiller Gymnasium, was very successful in the debatingting contest last year. Our 11th graders made it to the second place and our 12th graders to the first place. We had a fun time and we will always remember it" Anand Lettau (who won the best speaker's award in 2009). To see more about an example of debating, please click on Debate November 2007 In October 2005, a letter arrived at Schiller-Gymnasium from the British Embassy. The Embassy had decided that the art of English debating had to be introduced to pupils in Berlin, and as a sort of pilot project, the Embassy and the British Council were going to host a debating competition in January. They were inviting the school to send a team to the competition.

In response to this, Mr Browning rapidly set up a Debating Society. How else could the Schiller team win if no-one was properly prepared? Ever since we have been training regularly -- for as in a real sport, there are rules to be learnt and muscles to be honed. One must learn to structure one's thoughts and arguments; one must learn to speak freely and convincingly (the latter is especially important when one does not actually agree with the point of view one has been assigned to defend); and of course, the entire business must be conducted in English. Under Mr Browning's guidance, we learned all of these things -- a sort of boot camp of debating, as it were.


On January 17, 2006, five Europe-school pupils were called upon to defend Schiller-Gymnasium's honor: Victor Boadum, Year 9; Kolja Zydatiss, Year 10; and Elisa Schellin, Jake Pfender and Lara Ehrenhofer from Year 12.

After going through two preliminary rounds, debating on the upcoming World Cup in football and the threat of terrorism, respectively, and winning both, we were admitted to the final round. This was a debate on the threat of climate change to humankind. The odds were against us: the point of view we had to defend was that climate change was not a threat to our existence, and of three judges, two were specialists on global warming!
Still, after a heated discussion, we won the debate and with it, a large, shiny golden trophy. We'll have to win it for another two years running, then it'll be the school's to keep...
Anyone interested in joining the Winning Team (and possibly becoming part of next year's team?) is free to do so: meetings are on Wednesday afternoons, and the topics to be discussed are posted throughout the school on a weekly basis.

Debating Competition Report

On October 26th 2006 at the Bertha von Süttner School in Reinickendorf, the SESB students at the Schiller-Gymnasium debating team won their debates.

Teams from five schools in Berlin took part in an afternoon of intense speech-making!

The successful students were Lara E., Jana T. and Jake Pf.. The debating topics were the following:
  1. This house believes that science and technology have made the world a better place.

  2. All zoos should be abolished.

  3. There should be a dress code for teachers.
C. Brown

Debating Results June 2011

The June 2011 Debating Tournament at Bertha-von-Suttner-Oberschule comprised 8 schools from Berlin and Brandenburg with over 60 speakers. The Juniors came in 6th place, while the Seniors came in 2nd and 4th place overall. Out of the 60+ speakers, seven of our pupils were voted into the Top Ten ranking of "Best speaker": 2nd: Tom Knoll, Jana Riecke 4th: Nina Jones, Roberta Huldisch 5th: Lawrence Conrad 7th: Konrad Heinz 8th: Melissa Paraskevaidis The junior team consisted of: Douglas Rouse Nils Brüning Melissa Alhan Chandni Schattenfroh Gregory Chang The seniors teams consisted of: Roberta Huldisch Nina Jones Melissa Paraskevaidis Jana Riecke Jennifer Kirke Konrad Heinz Lawrence Conrad Moritz Kiermeier Tom Knoll Well done to all concerned!