ESU volunteer Mahima Nayak tells us why she loves judging our competitions, and how it helped inspire her new career
How did you come across the ESU and why did you decide to volunteer as a judge?
I was studying Law at Oxford and saw an ad on Instagram that the ESU was looking for judges for the Schools’ Mace Debating Competition. I’d done a bit of debating at school, not ESU competitions, but mainly BP (British Parliamentary) style and my experience had left me feeling a bit disheartened and with something of a bitter impression. The competitions felt impenetrable to novices like me from a school where, while our teachers were great, we didn’t have debate coaches or a long history of debating like some of the other schools did.
I think oracy and debate is so important for children from all backgrounds – state, grammar, private, everyone – it should be something everyone has the opportunity to take part in, and I thought that if I could go in as a judge and inspire just one child, it would be so worthwhile.
What were your first impressions?
I really enjoyed it. I started seeing the fun and the playfulness of public speaking and debate again. I had been doing a lot of ambassador outreach work through my college, chatting with Year 12s about admissions and life at Oxford, but judging the Mace was the first time I really got the chance to go into schools, as opposed to the students coming to me, and I found I really, really enjoyed it.
I’ve judged for two years now and have seen pupils at multiple stages in the competition and it’s been so great watching them improve and develop. Even though I’d never seen myself as ‘a children person’, so to speak, I found I enjoyed it so much that I started looking into teacher training and am about to start with Teach First.
What do you enjoy most about it?
There’s something so satisfying when you watch students who you can see have shaky hands or who are a bit teary beforehand, and then they pull themselves together, get up and give a fantastic debate performance. Seeing their passion and their skill always amazes me – they’re all so much better at debate than I ever was – but what I really love is when the teams go up to each other after the debate and continue it. They’re asking why they said such-and-such a thing, or asking what they think about this particular fact or argument. Watching it overflow from the debate into their normal talk is just so wonderful.
Tell us a bit more about the judging process.
Firstly, judging debate is very different to doing it yourself – it’s a lot less stressful being on the judges’ side of the table than the other! And secondly, it feels more like fun than work. I find it really interesting to pick apart the debate and apply the judging criteria to the great work the students have been doing. And then it’s about how you deliver feedback and how you adapt and react to pupils in the moment. Giving positive feedback is so important because you don’t want to put anyone off. You want people to keep going.
I really like the format of the Mace, how it combines prepared research with improvisation. You come with your facts and your knowledge and predictions of what the opposition will say, but you also have to adapt the material you have to what’s happening on the ground.
And, I know it sounds a little bit ‘cringe’, but, because of this, debate really is just as much about listening as it is about talking. We give 10 out of 40 marks for listening and response. The best debaters are the ones who really listen to the opposition and can address their points.
What do you get out of it?
I get the satisfaction of facilitating such a great competition. Without judges, it can’t run. I get a lot of development and growth myself too, especially now that I’m in that period where I’m a student going into teaching. Because I’m both student and teacher in many ways, I can bring multiple perspectives, and I think that helps develop me both as someone who still is learning, but as someone who wants to teach and educate as well.
What difference do you hope you’re making?
I hope that every child learns they have something important to say. Even if you volunteer just once, you’ve given an opportunity for a child to stand up and debate or to have a bit of back and forth with someone else – possibly for the first time in their lives in such a formal situation. And even if they never do it again, those skills will stay with them for life, whether they win or lose.
And the great thing is, you can’t get worse at debating. It’s only an upwards trajectory, so the more you do it, the better you’ll get. And those skills you learn through it don’t only apply to the ESU Schools’ Mace competition. They apply to job interviews, to university, to your social life. Communication is the bread and butter of life. To speak in front of an audience is such a fantastic skill and anything that we can do as individuals to create an environment where young people are free and welcome to speak is great for their futures and the future of this wonderful country.
What are your plans for the future?
Seeing the work the ESU does to empower all students to build their oracy skills is something that’s really important to me. I’ve already spoken to my mentors for the coming year and hope to start a debate club in my employment school, Rivers Academy in Feltham, West London.
