Focus on Learning 

Armidale Diocesan Stage 3 Debating Competition

Last week our debating team participated in their first debate for the competition, debating against St. Joseph's Uralla with the topic 'Technology makes peoples smarter'. We were very happy when we were allocated the negative side and our team members quickly began brainstorming all the reasons why technology, in fact, does not make people smarter. Alex, as first speaker, did a great job at defining the topic, introducing the team and then delving straight into two very convincing arguments; the fact that people had survived without technology for many years and had achieved great things (Thomas Edison and the lightbulb for example) and that the rise of technology and the internet has allowed for 'fake news' to beome rampant, thus actually giving us a false sense of intelligent. Our second speaker, Archie, followed this up with two more compelling arguments; speaking about how the use of spell check has decreased our abilities to spell and that relying on technology to take notes limits our brain's ability to retain information. Charles, our third speaker, then summarised the teams arguments and gave final comments on our topic. Our chairperson and stand in fourth speaker (in Jack's absense), Olive, did a wonderful job at chairing the event and assisting the team with rebuttals. 

After a few tense minutes waiting for the adjudicator (Mrs Daley, Assistant Principal of St. Nicholas Primary School, Tamworth) to gather her notes and point scores, we were announced as the winning team for the debate! Mrs Daley kindly offered feedback to both teams and complimented us on our use of modality and structure in our speeches. With a win and some experience under our belts, we now begin preparing for our next debate, to be held in week 10. We're looking forward to it!