European Youth Parliament September 2006

Dominican College - 3rd in UK Finals

On Thursday 21st September a group of Ten Dominican Students travelled to Hatfield college, Durham, to compete in the UK finals of the European Youth Parliament. To qualify for the UK finals the Dominican team first had to qualify for the Northern Irish finals by writing an essay on EU enlargement.

In March 2006 the team won the Northern Ireland finals of the EYP competition by participating in ten debates on various aspects of contemporary EU issues. The Northern Irish jury judged them to be the most effective and best researched group and placed them first out of ten schools.

The pupils spent time in June researching and writing their resolution on EU expansion into the Western Balkans as well as preparatory work on fourteen other EU topics ranging from a European Space policy, an EU maritime policy, economic nationalism within the EU, The EU failure in Zimbabwe and the right to free speech.

The Dominican team were one of fourteen teams who qualified for the UK finals and were assigned the committee for Foreign Affairs. After a day of team building and committee work the group immersed themselves in two days of intensive debating on a wide range of EU matters in Durham Town Hall.

At the end of the competition on Sunday 24th September the Dominican EYP team were adjudged to have been the best prepared team and the committee with the most effective level of EU focus. The UK judges placed the team w third out of the fourteen teams and the Dominican group were unlucky to lose out on the two top places which would have enabled them to represent the UK in the European finals in either Kiev or Potsdam. The adjudication revealed that the top three places had been “a very close thing”.

Mr Ramsay and Ms McGowan, who helped prepare the group and who accompanied them to the Durham finals, were both delighted with their performance and were proud of the way they defended their views in passionate and constructive debates. Mr Ramsay and Ms McGowan summed up the experience in the following way, "The team not only represented their school but also their wider region to the highest standards and should feel very proud of this wonderful achievement. Much of the skills and knowledge that they acquired over this demanding session will remain with them and they gained valuable confidence and experience from the competition which will help them in both their A level and University studies. The group were also a pleasure to be with."