Debating News

In Week 2, Blue Mountains Grammar hosted the Blue Mountains Debating competition, where Springwood High, Winmalee High and St Columbus visited the school to take part in the competition. On the day we ran 9 debates, with five of our teams competing in the competition, ranging from year 7 to year 10. Every BMGS team won on the day! 

Our Year 7 team - James Tierney, Edie Jensen, Ava McCarthy, Pearl Yatman and Maggie Martin, debated that plastic bottled water creates more problems than it solves. They made an excellent case in the negative, and did a fantastic job!

Our two Year 8 teams - Team 1 being Gabrielle McGhee, Bronte Secker, Maiya Edwards and Natalie de Bruyn, and Team 2 being Elise Lowe, George Kinneally, Grace Wesley, Ethan Ramaiya and Mackenzie Levy, debated that children and teenagers should be in government. One team won in the affirmative, and the other in the negative, after fascinating arguments and fantastic teamwork. 

The Year 9 Team - Dante Oliver, Lucy Hargraves, Felix Montefiore, Luke Gibson and Caitlyn Ramaiya argued that we should study current affairs and not history in the affirmative, and our Year 10 Team - Giselle Brogan, Zia Mamo, Ruby Brajkovic and Audrey Clarke argued that juvenile offenders should be tried and treated as adults in the affirmative. 

We also had two HICES teams debate - both with impromptu topics and one hour of preparation time. Our first team consisting of Year 9 and 10 students (Nisha Rehn, Lizzie Nealon-Cook, Zariya Janine and Lucy Hargraves) won after debating against the affirmative team from Scots All Saints College. The topic was that comprehensive drivers education should be mandatory in Australian high schools. They won after a very interesting debate.

The HICES Opens Team - Sidney Edwards, Sophia Huckel, Thomas O’Connor and Corbin Fisher won their debate that dangerous challenge videos should be a criminal offence in Australia (from the negative).

Thank you to Ms Grassmayr for coordinating the Blue Mountains Competition, and Mr Weibye for coordinating the HICES competition. Thank you as well to Elaine Manners for adjudicating, and thanks to Nisha Rehn, Eliza Umbers, Iluka Horne, Ruby Gale, Soraya Saban and Chloe-Rose Siorokos for helping with Blue Mountains debating. 

Lucy Hargraves

Year 9 Debating Team