Regional Debating Competition

Debaters Assoc of Victoria 

Shepparton High School hosted and participated in the Debaters Association of Victoria’s (DAV) 2016 Regional Competition.  

On Thursday 8th September Numurkah Secondary College, St Mary of the Angels Secondary College and McGuire College joined Shepparton High School students in the debating competition and debated in affirmative and negative teams. Topics included  "Schools should provide free meals for students",  "After schools sports should be made compulsory",  "Professional sports should have separate leagues that permit the use of performance enhancing drugs" and "The government should increase funding to the arts".

Shepparton High School’s Senior Team won their debate on ‘Free meals should be provided to schools’ (affirmative) against Wanganui Park Secondary and the Junior Team also defeated Numurkah

Secondary College in their Secret Topic Debate regarding ‘Advertisements being aimed at children should be banned’ (negative).

Clayton Johansen was awarded Best Speaker in the Junior division for the secret debate and  Muhammed Al Moosawi was awarded Best Speaker for his debate regarding  ‘ Youth Voting in Australia’. 

Shepparton High School organised training with DAV two weeks prior to the event to give students exposure and understanding into how a formal debate is constructed.

The program is designed to provide training in the basic skills and structure of debating, whilst also giving students exposure to the art of persuasion. Students learnt how to formulate arguments, how to define topics, and the role of each speaker in a debate.

The following students from SHS participated in the event Gemma Voumard, Clayton Johansen, Jairah Brand, Taylor Nania, Prue Bester, Denis Sherolli, Huseyin Bozat, Xhoana Mullaymeri, Hawraa Sharifi , Muhammed Al Moosawi  and Sienna Mehmet.

Students from all schools performed extremely well and the competition was tough from an academic and public speaking perspective.  I was also pleased to see topics related to sport explored.

Shepparton High School would like to thank DAV, all participating schools, parents and students for their involvement. 

Denise Stewart

Event Organiser

English Department