Debating

For the first time in over 10 years, Elisabeth Murdoch College has its very own debating team. This is very exciting for students who are looking to excel in their learning through an extracurricular activity. For now, the debating club’s home is in E7, and the team has seen a good amount of members come from Year 11. Luckily, to help us improve, the club was given a challenge by a group of students in EMC! 

On Friday the 28th of August, the Year 11 debating club had their inaugural debating competition against the Year 8’s. The topic of the debate was that “The environmental movement has failed to make real progress,” and after the flipping of a coin; the Year 8’s were chosen as the affirmative team and the Year 11’s were picked as the negative team.

Both teams worked strenuously over the weeks prior to research for the highly anticipated debate. Counting down the days until the debate, we were all filled with a mixture of excitement and nerves. 

The day of the debate:

Before we knew it, that ever-so-exhilarating day was already here. The media room was set up in preparation for the debate and the 6 speakers had their final nerve-racking practices. Both teams had an impressive amount of support from numerous peers and teachers that all entered the room and quietly took their seats. Once everyone was ready, the competition commenced. Ms Flight and Mr Howard were the adjudicators of the debate and analysed every speaker’s speech. All speakers were given a score from 70-80 and these were added together as a team score. The debate was very close and both teams, as well as the audience, showed a high level of respect throughout the debate. 

The scores:

At the end of the debate the adjudicators read out the scores, and with a score of 224 to 223, the Year 8’s took home the win! The speaker of the day was also revealed as Lachie Culton, a Year 11 studnet who was the 1st negative speaker and received a score of 78 out of 80. This was an amazing opportunity to learn and practice our debating skills.

Congratulations to everyone that participated in the debate. 

Interested in joining?

We have limited spots available but if you are interested in joining (no matter what year level) students can email wendy.coombes@education.vic.gov.au  for further information.