College Debating Team 2018

The school debating team this year is a mixture of experienced debaters and newcomers. Georgia Jenkins, Amber Baulch, Lauren Bowles and Elissa Nicolaci have been joined by Year 10 students Jodan Grant and Emily Green. Following a first round forfeit, the team travelled to Ballarat last week to compete against St Patrick’s College, arguing the negative case of a difficult topic “That Spain Should Grant Independence To Catalonia” The team was well prepared with some strong and convincing arguments, but lost by just one point to the affirmative team. Amber was awarded Best Speaker of the night for her great effort as our third speaker.

The next round is the start of the secret topics, where teams are given an hour in which to prepare their case. Debating is an invaluable skill for students: it promotes confidence and effective public presentation; it encourages logical and critical thinking, social awareness and an interest in current affairs; it is multi-disciplinary: debating techniques can be used in all subject areas, and its benefits extend through all aspects of the school curriculum. It’s a great way to prepare for the oral presentations required in many VCE subjects. If you’re interested in participating in debating, please talk to any of the students currently involved.