Debating

Debating took place once again this year at St Mary’s, via zoom calls as done in previous years. This year we were able to have two amazing teams - Stage 4 and Stage 5. Our Stage 4 team was made up of Year 7 students Tilly Gleeson, Cloey Kook, Katie Spinks, and Neiva Walton. Our Stage 5 team was made up of Year 9 students Sienna Mitchell and Angus Johns, and Year 10 students Riley Roden and myself. 

Our first round was in Week 8 of Term 2 with Stage 4 having the topic of “Technology is changing us for the better” (negative), and Stage 5 having the topic of “Artificial intelligence will destroy humanity” (negative). Stage 4 had a very close debate but ultimately went away defeated, but Stage 5 was able to win their debate. 

Our next debate had the same topic for both teams, being “The future of the world is online” (affirmative), which took place in Week 8 of Term 3. Sadly, both teams went away with a loss. In Week 9 of Term 3, our next topic was “Public figures have a right to private lives” arguing the negative side. 

Of course, this topic proved to be extremely difficult with both teams arguing incredibly well and coming up with strong rebuttals, however, Holy Trinity ultimately went away with the win. Both teams worked incredibly hard during the debating season, but a special shoutout goes to the Stage 4 team who have been commended on how well they’ve improved and performed. We thank Mrs Walshe who put all the hard work into organising debating for St Mary’s and helping to coach us all to become better debaters. Hopefully next year we will be able to compete face to face!