Term 1 Debating

The Year 9 and 10 Debating Teams are off to a successful start to the year. Below area few words from some of our amazing members!

The Year 10 (C Grade) debate team has competed in 2 rounds so far. Rounds are held at Peninsula Grammar and we compete against a different school each round. Our first round this year was “Compulsory voting should be abolished in Australia”, which was a tough round and the scores came really close. Our second round was “Students should have to complete compulsory voting hours every year” and we were all really well prepared especially because our competition was Peninsula Grammar. It was a very passionate debate and at the end we ended up winning with a one-point lead and our own team-member, Liv English, was named Best Speaker. Our team is now preparing for our first advised topic about Technology. We would like to thank the DAV, Peninsula Grammar and the McClelland Staff for supporting our endeavours.

By John Barton

Hi, we are Makayla and Charlotte, members of the Year 9 Debate Team. So far this year, wehave already competed in 2 exciting debates, both held at Peninsula Grammar. Our debate team comprises of Makayla Doyle, Lia Velissaris, Charlotte Doyle, Daniel Trott, Hayden McHarry, Taj Fox, Maxim Alyousef, Deegan Ashcroft and Scott Lamrock. We have all worked extremely hard on our speeches and preparing for debates. This includes us brainstorming ideas, drafting, writing, holding a mock debate, and finally speaking. Our first debate was avery close match with us ending up losing by one point. However, we are extremely happy to announce that we won our most recent debate. Our speakers were Lia, Makayla, andCharlotte, and we are so proud to mention that our second speaker Makayla tied for the title of ‘best speaker’ with the opposition's second speaker. We all worked so hard and definitely deserved our win, so good job everyone! Our current plans for next term are to prepare for our next debate: ‘The government should prioritise funding the arts over sports’, where we have been given the negative side. We are all looking forward to it and have already begun planning. Lastly, to wrap this up, we would like to acknowledge and say our appreciation to the DAV for allowing and running debating, all of our teammates as they have spent their own free time to help contribute, and lastly to the teachers especially Ms White and Ms Hooper-Duffy as they, in particular, have helped us so much. They have given up their own time to help us plan, edit and overall help judge our speeches, which has made all the most difference. We would not be able to do it without you so we are eternally grateful, so once again thank you.

By Makayla Doyle and Charlotte Doyle