Senior School News

Year  12 Public Speaking Competition 

On Friday the 19th of August, the Year 12 cohort celebrated their Public Speaking finalists in the Public Speaking Competition. 

The stimulus that the students were required to write a speech about was 

‘An issue in the media that concerns me is ..’. 

Students were judged on their evidence of research, structure and cohesion, relevance, depth of thought and length of their speech. 

The results were as follows: 

First place

• Caitlin D with the topic ‘The media should afford women more respect.'

Second place

• Charlotte Y with the topic 'Social media platforms should increase regulation of health-related content.'

Third place (joint)

• Bill Z with the topic ‘Australia should ban horse racing.'
   
• Steven H with the topic 'Australia should remain a constitutional monarchy.' 

Congratulations to all students who presented in the competition and to our winners.

It was wonderful for our Year 12 students to present their speeches in person in the Performing Arts Centre after two years of speeches on a screen during lockdowns.

The Great Debate – Students vs Teachers 

It was wonderful to have our first Student vs Teachers debate in the library last Friday.

The turn-out of students and teachers was amazing and you could feel the Viewbank College spirit in the room.

The Year 12s made their way out of the fish-bowl to cheer on the teams and the younger students were equally engaged in listening to and supporting their peers.  

The topic was "That Australia should remain a part of the Commonwealth". 

The students were affirmative and teachers negative. 

We had an esteemed judging panel made up of Mr Nunan and Bill Z of Year 12.

In addition to this, our audience members had an opportunity to support the team they believed had won through an exuberant round of applause. 

Contentious points were made on each side, with references to colonisation, Hitler and Prince Charles, causing moments of laughter and outrage in our audience.

Our teacher team was victorious on this occasion.  

Our student debaters were Ngoc N, Steven H and Poorvansh S and our teacher team was made up of Mr Hazelbank, Mr Ponte and Ms Lawrence.  

The debating team look forward to hosting our next Great Debate – Teachers vs Students in Week 10 of this term. 

Ms Ellis