Round One of Senior Debating kicked off last week with a strong start to the season. St Catherine’s Senior Debating Teams won six out of eight debates, with one Team having a bye and another debate cancelled. 

Congratulations to the following five debaters, named as outright Best Speakers during the event: 

Olivia Hargrave, Year 11 

Megan Chang, Year 11 

Georgia Hennessy, Year 11 

Isha Paithankar, Year 10 

Diya Asthana, Year 9 

Melanie Young, Year 10 (Equal score with Best Speaker) 

Thank you also, to our Debating Coaches who are seasoned St Catherine’s debaters themselves, Old Girls Angela Yu (‘22), Alexandra (Allie) Hall (‘19), Ciara Jenkins (‘22), Isobel Tanner (‘20) and 2022 Debating and Public Speaking Captain, Lan-Tian Yen-West (‘22).  

DAV Women’s Competition 

It is with great pleasure I announce Year 9 student, Diya Asthana (D Grade) was announced as Best Speaker in the DAV Women’s Competition over the weekend.  

Diya’s Team, Team Indira Gandhi, won the overall competition for the day. This is a particularly tough competition, attracting top debaters from across Victoria.  

Students are put into staggered teams with students from other schools (i.e., one student from Years 9, 10, and 11 will make up one team). This competition gave Diya the opportunity to experience high-level debating and exposure to debaters from other schools and higher age groups. Congratulations to Diya for a remarkable achievement.  

My thanks also go to Ms Merran O’Connor and Ms Anna Watts who supervised Senior Debating and the DAV Competition, respectively.