The Debating season has begun!

We were delighted to welcome our Principal to our first training session for the 2017 Debating season. She arrived to find all teams engrossed in their preparation of Round One topics, ably led by our Old Girl coaches, Jaquelin Cantarella (’15), Kate Clark (’14), Claire Gifford (’14) and Tess Price (’14). The topic for A Grade was ‘That Australia should end its alliance with the US’ and our Principal had some insightful contributions to make on the subject, lending her copy of Malcolm Fraser’s Dangerous Allies to the Year 12 debaters for inspiration.

A variety of topics were tackled in Round One: ‘That Australia should adopt a new national flag’ (D Grade), ‘That the value of a citizen’s vote should diminish with age’ (C Grade) and ‘That parents should not be allowed to refuse medical treatment for their children’ (B Grade). The range of topics offered are designed to encourage students to appreciate that multiple views influence complex social debates.

We welcome our new Year 9 (D Grade) debaters and those girls who are joining Debating for the first time. Our inclusive approach welcomes all girls who would like to be part of a team.

With some of our debaters preparing for the Head of Schoolgirls Regatta, our first training session saw 49 girls prepare for Round One out of a total 60 students who have signed up to the program, this year.

The Debating Captain, Chloe Thompson, also thanked Chloe Page and Hayley Cottrell at Assembly for their beautifully designed posters launching the beginning of the Debating and Public Speaking calendar.