Announcing the Primary School Debate and Essay Competition Winners!

The Partner Power Summit: PROTECTING BIODIVERSITY has begun!  

Today, primary school students congregated online to debate the question, What can we do to prevent the sixth mass extinction?  Representing the different groups, GOVERNMENTS, CITIZENS, BUSINESSES and SCIENTISTS, the students shared their perspectives and asked each other questions, coming up with the top 40 ideas between them.

Watch this year’s Primary Schools Debates here!

Utilising renewable energy, improving environmental education and forming partnerships were among some of the most important ideas raised by today’s debaters.

When the debating came to a close, the judges headed off to discuss the best arguments and decide the winners!  Today’s judges, Kehkashan Basu, Vijo Varghese, Saheed Opeyemi Adebisi, and Karl Hansen, then returned for the Award Ceremony, announcing the debate and essay competition winners. 

The essay competition, this year focusing on the question, How can we protect biodiversity and prevent the sixth mass extinction?, saw entries flood in from 59 countries all over the globe. We are delighted to announce that the winner of our primary school category is Daniel Bentley, age 9, from the United Kingdom.

Read this year’s Top 5 primary school essay entries here!

Our judges were also glad to be able to share that the GOVERNMENTS team won the primary school debates, for the best overall performance. Well done, Kayzen, Daniel, Trang, Naaish, Melike, and Swarnim! Congratulations are also in order for Anveshika Mathpal from the CITIZENS team, who was awarded best individual performance, and Lelentle Ramoroka from South Africa, Kayzen Tan from Malaysia, and Chyavan Karthikeya Batlanki from Qatar, who received individual commendations for their conduct and arguments during the debates.

We would also like to take the time to congratulate our essay competition runners up for their wonderful essays; Zeina Ahmed Hussein from Egypt, Naaish Mohamed Naseem from the Maldives, Noela Betty Namukose from Seychelles, Kayzen Tan from Malaysia, Moyosore Akinwumi from Nigeria, Anveshika Mathpal from India, Thara Andre from Seychelles, Ziana Singh and Darvyn Tan from UAE, Darnell Vincent from Seychelles, Morgan El Hage from UAE, Jingxin Chung from Malaysia, Aayan Ananad Astana and Maria Beltran from UAE, and Swarnim Bharadwaj from India.  

The primary school debates were moderated by Georgie Jefferies, former Senior Keeper at The Living Rainforest, now working for ZooLab, an animal handling company who attend primary and secondary schools to educate and inspire students to protect the environment. 

Tomorrow, the Summit continues with day 2 of the debates, this time attended by secondary school students. If you would like to find out more about our Summit, and the activities coming up for the rest of the week, see: www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/tsl-intl-schools-debates-partner-power-summit-protecting-biodiversity-tickets-142674520331 

You can get involved on social media too! Share your thoughts and opinions with #TSLBiodiversity2021