News

After two years of forced cancellations due to COVID, it was with no small sense of excitement that five teams across six year levels participated at the Mount Gambier Eisteddfod Debating at Wehl St Theatre last week. With the pandemic limiting opportunities for debating, this was the first time that our Primary and Junior Secondary students had participated in an ‘official’ debate against other schools. As such, there were plenty of nerves on the day of each debate!

We began on Wednesday with the Primary Division. The Year 6 team of Riley Hopgood, Xavier Georgiou and Ronan Fox put on an entertaining argument ‘That school uniform should be optional’ and were awarded the win. Thanks to Mrs Kristie Bateman for coaching this team. Thursday saw two teams entering the Junior Secondary divisions. We took the negative on ‘That Hogwarts is the ideal school’, with strong performances from Isabelle Neumann, Jake Parker and the late substitute, Adelaide Bradley, although they were defeated by the narrowest of margins. The second team of James Taylor, Charlie Hinchliffe and Fred Grey-Smith argued the negative ‘that beauty is more useful than brains’, presenting a well-researched and thoughtful argument, and were perhaps unlucky to be narrowly defeated.

The Senior Secondary Division was held on the Friday, with two teams presenting. The first debate, ‘that humanity is the next dinosaur’ was presented by Liam Nott, Ash de Jong and Sarah van Rijthoven. In an entertaining and fast-moving debate, the team successfully engaged the audience with humour and a strong knowledge of their topic and were awarded a victory. The second topic: ‘that it is better to be one of the crowd’ proved to be the most fiercely contested, with speakers on both sides presenting strong arguments. In the end, persuasive speeches by Flynn Davison and Mariam Kassim, along with excellent and sustained rebuttal from Campbell Fox, saw the team not only win their debate but win the division as best team. Campbell Fox was also awarded best speaker for the division.

The most pleasing aspect of the process this year was the number of new debaters willing to challenge themselves and step out of their comfort zones onto stage (often for the first time). Debating is a skill which takes years to master, and these students are all on the way. I encourage students interested in extending themselves and their confidence to try out the Debate Club, which meets every Wednesday at lunch, upstairs in the PRC.

Adam Taylor | Teacher / Debating Coach