ENGLISH
CONGRATULATIONS TO MCKINNON’S TOP WRITERS FOR FEBRUARY!
Well done to the many talented students who entered Writer of the Month in February. HUGE congratulations to: Esha Faisal (9E), Ananya Jha (9B), Ava Muelu (8M), Morgan Staples (Year 8I), Abigail Butterworth (7M), Jaime Segbedzi (Year 10) and Tina Xu (Year 7).
These students have each won a $30 voucher from Benn’s Books and gained 50 points for their house. You can read their wonderful pieces on the ‘WOTM’ Google site link below.
Entries for the March competition need to be shared with your English or Literature teacher no later than 3:30pm, Wednesday 24 March.
Keep up the fantastic writing, McKinnon students!
Ms Liz Pentland
Writer of the Month Coordinator
DEBATING ROUND ONE
On Wednesday 3 March, the first of five rounds of debating finally commenced. Students with all varieties of skill sets and experience were welcomed to Brighton Grammar to compete against schools in the region. The general topics of the evening revolved around tourism, health, education and politics. The eight teams comprising 50 students from Years 9 to 12 were all buzzing to get involved after debating was cut short in 2020 after only one debate!
The first topic for us Year 11s was ‘That schools should not teach texts that contain discriminatory content’.
During preparation, we had to do extensive research to make sure that we were well educated on the general issue and ready for the debate ahead. The challenge is being able to think of arguments that are convincing enough that the adjudicator would be more likely to agree with your side, even if you don’t personally believe in the arguments yourself. We also had to make sure that we were including both reliable evidence to support our arguments, and emotional appeals strong enough to sway our adjudicator.
Additionally, throughout the debate, we were faced with the challenge of thinking on our feet, as rebuttals can only be made after we have listened to the opponents’ arguments. We had to muster up the courage and confidence to compete against some of the best public speakers in the region, not to mention presenting to an extra audience of parents and teachers.
With Linh Nguyen and Alyssa Nikolakopoulos (Year 11) as experienced debaters, and Monique as a first timer, we were pleased that after one hour of intense debating, we won the round by one point and Linh was awarded the best speaker of the night!
We are all very excited for the upcoming debates and the opportunities to improve our critical thinking and speaking skills, whilst exploring all the wonderful things that debating has to offer.
By Linh Nguyen, Alyssa Nikolakopoulos and Monique Andjelic
Year 11 Students