Debating & Public Speaking
Huntingtower School
Melbourne Interschool Mooting Competition
Earlier this month, our students participated in the Melbourne Interschool Mooting competition for the first time. Mooting is essentially ‘legal debate’, where teams have to argue an appeal case, apply real case law and legal principles, all while responding to questions from a judge that are designed to keep them from merely repeating prepared remarks. The competition comprised of 60 teams from 25 schools and was hosted by Deakin University.
We entered three teams in the competition, and saw some outstanding results:
Well done to Year 10 students, Anay Gadre, Lara Leung and Guhan Ganesan, and Year 11 students, Sophia Gioutlou, Dylan Sopian and Kevan Jayakody, who were two of the four teams to make the Semi Finals of the competition.
Congratulations as well to Sophia Gioutlou, Dylan Sopian, Anay Gadre and Mia Pountney, who all received Advocacy Awards for their performance in their moots.
Many thanks to Mr Andrew Phillips for his support of the competition and assistance with attending and supervising the competitions on both days.
All-Huntingtower Grand Final in Monash Debating Competition
In an outstanding achievement, two Huntingtower teams will face each other in the Grand Final of the Monash Asia Studies Debating Competition.
Run by Monash University, the competition began in March and brought together teams from across Melbourne and interstate through online and face-to-face debates. Huntingtower secured both grand final places after its remaining teams defeated PLC and St Kevin’s College in the semi-finals.
Congratulations to finalists Varun Sanjay, Shiven Rewal, Kean Pan, Shivika Verma, Mia Pountney, Dylan Sopian, Hirun Samarasinghe, Sophia Gioutlou, Kishaya Samarakoon, Jamie Chen, Kevan Jayakody and Neerav Jain.
The Grand Final is expected to be held at Monash University at 1.30pm on Wednesday 16 September.
Three Huntingtower Teams Reach DAV Finals
Three Huntingtower teams have progressed to the finals of the DAV Schools Competition following the conclusion of the regional rounds. Only the highest-ranked teams from each region advance, making this an outstanding achievement in the Mount Waverley region, one of the largest in Victoria.
Congratulations to our finalists:
Year 11 – B Grade 3: Kean Pan, Mia Pountney, Sahitya Iyer, Shiven Rewal, Shivika Verma and Varun Sanjay. The team performed so strongly that it will bypass the first three finals rounds and progress directly to the final 16.
Year 10 – C Grade 1: Allyse Xu, Avika Bapna, Elen Georgakopoulos, Felicia Shen, Hitha Manupuri, Rosabel Reddy, Saina Mirpuri, Shanelle Kurukulasuriya and Sophie Barrett.
Year 10 – C Grade 3: Amalie Mutha-Merennege, Celina Wang, Ira Rajadhyax, Lara Leung, Maria Filosoglou, Medha Hasan, Olivia Won and Saisha Malhotra.
DAV Online Public Speaking Junior Finalists
Recently we also had the online state final for DAV Junior Public Speaking.
Congratulations to Maddie Wilkie, Ira Veer and Niall Sethi, who all qualified for the final as Year 7s competing against Year 8s. They did a great job presenting their speeches, including their first impromptu speeches, and really rose to the occasion.
Upcoming Events
House Debating
Senior School 3v3 Debates: Monday 31 August lunchtime
Senior School House Debating: Wednesday 2 September period 4 and 5
Year 7 & 8 Debating Competition
Held in the MYC from 4pm - 5pm
Wednesday 2 September
Wednesday 7 October
Wednesday 21 October
Year 7 DAV Junior Secondary Program
Round 1: Thursday 3 September, 2026
Round 2: Thursday 22 October, 2026
Round 3: Thursday 5 November, 2026
Matthew McDonald
Director of Student Communication & Engagement