Debating

Congratulations to our Ben Venue Blue debating team who competed in the state championships of the Premiere's Debating Challenge recently. The competition was stiff and the topics required careful consideration. In the four rounds leading to the semi-finals, our team argued the following:

That we should ban all tests in primary schools.	Affirmative	Win
That we should never keep score in sports involving primary school students.	Negative	Loss
That primary aged children should never be allowed to have a mobile device.	Negative	Win
That primary students should be given an allowance of $20 per week.	Negative	Loss

With two wins and two losses, Ben Venue was tied with 7 of the 10 teams in the competition, making this the closest Premier's Debating Challenge state final since the competition commenced in 1995. A complex weighting system was then applied to determine the semi-final matchups, in which Ben Venue was, unfortunately, not included. Claudia, Michaela, Bowie and Ethan were unlucky to just miss out on qualifying for the semi-finals, having defeated one of the teams who made it through, but were a credit to their school and should be proud of their improvement throughout the competition.

Congratulations to Macksville Public School for their impressive run of victories that led to their debaters claiming the title of State Champions.

Cam Pryce

Debating coach