National Finals of the French Debating Competition

This week, Lower Eighth pupils Alex Khosrowpanah-Falcone and Elyas Efthimiou competed in the National Finals of the French Debating Competition, which took place at the Institut Français.

This is the first time in recent memory that St Paul’s pupils have made it to this stage of the competition, and Alex and Elyas performed incredibly well, winning both of their first two debates on whether digitisation of artistic works make them more accessible to all, and whether space exploration is necessary for humanity.

They then progressed to the Gold final, where they very narrowly lost to a team of Upper Eighth pupils, having had to prepare a motion in 15 minutes, arguing against the idea that science should always have the final word. Nevertheless, reaching this stage in the competition and performing this well was an incredible achievement; well done to Alex and Elyas!