Our Senior School academic scholars took to the stage this week for an Ethics Cup inspired competition.
Hosted on Tuesday 10th December, our academic scholars from the Senior School took part in an exciting and thrilling debate competition inspired by The Ethics Cup.
Launched in 2008 by The London School of Economics and Political Science, The Ethics Cup is a tournament for pupils in Year 11 – 13 in which competing teams battle it out to debate and discuss ethical issues of public concern.
During our competition, the eight teams each addressed a case study, which they had been independently researching over the past two weeks, with certain criteria they must explore within their debate.
Teams had five minutes to present their case and answers, followed by a two-minute break for the opposing team to confer before a two-minute challenge response.
The judging panel, David Ashton, Deputy Head (Academic), and Graduate Scholar, Tessa Hawes, also had two-minutes to ask questions before scoring the teams based on qualities of thoughtfulness, insightfulness, and civility.
Some of the topics included:
A Monthly Subscription to Brutality – exploring the spike of true crime documentaries on Netflix and if true crime shows are inherently morally suspect because they treat the harm and suffering of real human beings as a form of entertainment.
Tears of the Koroks – analysing violent player behaviour towards friendly ‘Korok’ characters in the video game The Legend of Zelda, and if there is anything morally wrong with acts of cruelty toward friendly characters who don’t actually exist.
A Phenotypic Prometheus? – exploring the life of Adam Nash ‘the world’s first saviour sibling’ who was conceived through IVF so his umbilical cord stem cells could be harvested to save his sister who was born with a bone marrow disease, and whether ‘designer babies’ are morally permissible.
Sartorial Shuffle – debating the trend of ‘thrift flipping’; where people bulk buy from charity shops and transform the clothing items to then re-sell at a higher profit.
Doomsday Deterrence – if using nuclear weapons is always wrong, does that on its own guarantee that it is never morally permissible for a state to threaten to use them or to lead others to believe they will use them.
Congratulations to our two winnings teams: Bertie B and Seb B of Team 3, and Edger R, Joe B and Alex S of Team 8 – all pupils will receive an Amazon Book voucher to purchase challenging reads, interesting works of fiction or research books to support their studies.
Talking about the benefits of The Ethics Cup and our Scholars Programme, Matt Page, Head of Sports Science, PE & Academic Enrichment, said: “Events like this help to challenge and expand pupils’ comfort zones by placing them in experiences against opponents they haven’t faced before. It also enhances their exposure to other scholars and, as such, different ways of thinking, approaching and presenting problems. We learn a lot through practice and by watching others, so these varied events and competitions provide such a valuable learning experience.
“Our winning teams demonstrated clear collaborative working and strong preparation, evident in their delivery during the debates. They had also thought deeply about each ethical issue, often presenting similar cases or examples to support their arguments, using reliable sources and research to form opinions and to quantify the extent of the problem, maintaining their core objectives through the questioning whilst providing robust responses that showed clarity of thinking under pressure, and challenging their opponents well by bringing in additional lines of thinking or examples to support claims made.”
The Academic Scholars programme runs over five years from Year 9 to 13 and includes a vast varied range of opportunities, including:
- Access to industry experts and guest speakers, with between 10-15 live lectures across the academic year on a wide range of topics.
- Exciting opportunities for collaborative and independent project work.
- Exclusive competitions and events such as the Ethics Cup, Poetry By Heart, and Music Concerts.
- ‘Dark arts’ sessions which provide exclusive insider knowledge from industry experts on a variety of thrilling topics and life skills, from effective public speaking, to debates and politics.
- ‘Crash courses’, where we explore extra activities that aren’t necessarily part of the school curriculum or regular term activities; such as chess strategies, computer coding, and culinary skills.
Discover more about the Scholarships and Bursaries available at Framlingham College.
