Hillel Academy and Duhaney Park Primary School, have been declared joint champions of the Burger King 2020 Prep and Primary School Debating Competition.

The three-student teams from the two schools were the finalists among 42 teams in the competition which should have had its finals in January 2020, but was curtailed due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

This edition of the competition was the largest to date—a 50 per cent increase on the previous year. There was an expansion among the island’s school population with students from St Ann, Portland and St Thomas joining Kingston and St Andrew competitors, for the first time.

Sabrena McDonald Radcliffe, Head of Sales and Marketing of Restaurant Associates Ltd, Franchisees for Burger King (BK), hailed the students and the coaches of the two schools for “outstanding presentations”. 

“They were keen competitors and the children articulate, convincing and very persuasive in presenting their arguments. We were extremely pleased [with] the level and standard of the competition in general and the realization of our mission to help our students develop their public speaking and critical thinking skills while learning to argue a point without resulting [in] conflict”, McDonald Radcliffe explained.

Hillel Academy’s Saajah Sewell was the ‘Top Debater’ of the entire competition, supported by her team members Adlai Nixon and Jacob Chen.

They were coached by Krissan Cruckshank, Keisha Rose and Jermaine Christie.

The Duhaney Park Primary School team comprised Amoya Edwards, Danielle Jade Walters and Shaquan Hines.

They were coached by Denise Howell Douglas, Cadene Josephs and Mary Gordon.

Both teams have had their names inscribed on the Burger King Prep and Primary School Debating Competition Championship Trophy and also received miniatures of the trophy, cash awards of $150,000 for each team and $50,000 for each coaching team.