The ups and downs of a COVID-19 season have yielded silver linings for our Debating program with three of our Senior teams making it through to the Finals. Our Year 11 B Grade Team 2 (Clementine (Cece) Newton-Brown, Georgina Vote, Victoria Patsakos, Lucy Campbell, Elodie Ferrali and Sophie Gough), and our Year 10 C Grade Team 3 (Summer Balla-Kellett, Madeleine (Maddie) Hooker, Emilia Searby, Cara Uzunovski and Lan-Tian Yen-West) made it through to the Octo-Finals.

Great team work and a determined attitude saw our Year 9 D Grade Team 2 (Jemima Wilcox, Anise Imam, Catherine Karas, Zara Peele and Claudia Sowerby) make it through to the Semi Finals and winning some very close debates. Some of the topics in the Finals series included, That alcoholic products should carry health warnings and That we should ban photo filters on social media. While there have been some fine individual performances (with Jemima Wilcox and Claudia Sowerby achieving Best Speaker nominations during the season, and Zara Peele achieving Best Speaker three times in the Debaters Association of Victoria (DAV) season) the bonds between our students have been strengthened by needing to rely upon and trust each other throughout 2020, and respond assertively as a team.

In their first foray into a very different style of Debating, five pairs of students from Years 9 and 10 took part in the Intermediate British Parliamentary Competition which consisted of a single day competition comprising three debates with one hour of preparation per debate. We congratulate Eloise Rudge and Pia Zayontz in particular who recorded one win and one draw, and were nominated a top four team on the day of the competition progressing to the Semi Finals against particularly strong opponents and debating the topic: This house believes all serious crimes should be tried by Jury. Our students demonstrated strong control of their arguments, great composure under pressure, and represented us proudly. Fine achievements were also recorded by Year 10 students Angela Yu and Madeleine (Maddie) Farrer who won two out of their three debates. Additional single debates on the day of competition were also won by Year 10 students Madeleine Hooker and Rosie Bogdan, and Year 9 students, Flora Du and Catherine Karas. Best Speaker nominations also went to: Madeleine Farrer, Madeleine Hooker, Eloise Rudge and Angela Yu. Senior debaters, Ava Colosimo and Jemima Wilcox, also competed as a team ensuring that the popularity of this competition is sure to become a permanent fixture in the Debating calendar.

A new offering to St Catherine’s this year has been the series of Debate Camps offered by the DAV, which took place online. The Spring Debate Camp was attended by Catherine Karas, Mikayla Lee and Eloise Rudge, and was an opportunity for our debaters to continue honing their skills in the off season. Flora Du also attended and was named a Commended Speaker for the day – a fitting end to her season in Senior Debating.