The Debating and Public Speaking Program at St Catherine’s School continues to thrive as a popular co-curricular offering.  

Debating 

B Grade (Year 11) students training for their DAV debate with coach – past student Ciara Jenkins (’22)

A dynamic form of public speaking, debating promotes the intellectual exchange of ideas and confidence in students’ abilities to prepare, present and defend logical arguments. 

Students learn to think quickly and speak with spontaneity. As reported in an earlier Issue of the Blue Ribbon, our Barbreck debaters have enjoyed being coached and mentored by our Year 10 debaters who form the C Grade Team in the Debaters Association of Victoria (DAV) Program. 

Our Senior DAV Interschool Debating Program enables 10 teams of Years 9 to 12 girls to debate both prepared and secret topics against teams from other schools in the region. Coached by past students, our Senior Teams approach training sessions, and debates collaboratively to prepare and present speeches with clarity, confidence, and conviction.  

Year 9 debaters at Scotch College prior to Round Three. Pictured: Lan Tian Yen-West (’22) D Grade Coach, School Co-Captain Flora Du and Year 9 D Grade debaters.

Our Teams continue to do well, winning approximately 70% of the debates to date. A total of 15 Best Speaker awards and two teams are undefeated at the completion of three of the five Rounds in the Senior DAV Program held at Scotch College.  

The DAV also hosted the Women’s Debate where Year 9 student Diya Asthana participated in the winning Team, debating a range of topics throughout the day. Two Senior Debating Teams will also participate in the Deakin Law Debate on 25 June.  

Sign-ups are currently underway for the DAV Junior Secondary Debating Program which caters for Years 7 and 8 students. This Program will take place in Terms 3 and 4. Our Junior Teams are supported by Year 11 mentors who will help them prepare for their debates.  

Mooting Program 

An exciting component of the Program is the opportunity to participate in the Bond University National High School Mooting Competition. This Competition provides students with the opportunity to develop legal arguments in response to a case study and present them in a simulated court proceeding before a panel of judges. This requires great dedication and resilience, as the students must firstly interpret previous High Court judgements and relevant legislation before applying them to the given case study. 

This year, a team of three budding advocates from Year 11 entered the competition, to not only challenge themselves in a different form of public speaking, but also to develop their collaboration, legal knowledge, and critical thinking skills.  

The preparation for the moot commenced in early March 2023 with Scarlet Westaway, Sophia Holdenson and Millie McIntosh members of the Appellant’s legal team. The girls were fortunate to benefit from the expertise of Humanities teacher, Ms Nicole Horton, in weekly coaching sessions which involved analysing the case study and relevant legal material to develop oral submissions, along with participating in advocacy workshops. On 17 May 2023, the Team presented their oral submissions to the panel of judges and received positive feedback around their legal arguments, oral advocacy skills and teamwork during the proceedings.  

Scarlet, Sophia and Millie are to be congratulated for their courage, perseverance, and integrity throughout the Mooting journey, particularly when responding to some challenging questions from the Judges.  

Public Speaking Program 

Year 8 students Victoria Guan (pictured left) with Lucille Parfit- at the DAV Junior Public Speaking Competition on Sunday 28 May

The ability to speak confidently in a public forum is a highly valued skill and St Catherine’s participates in several Interschool Public Speaking Competitions. Year 8 student Victoria Guan was named one of the top five speakers at the recent Junior DAV Public Speaking Competition. Victoria will receive a medal at the prestigious ‘Swannie Awards’ later this year.  

Victoria is pictured with fellow Year 8 participant Lucille Parfit who also met the challenge of both prepared and impromptu presentations. We enjoyed Victoria’s presentation of her speech in Monday’s Debating and Public Speaking Assembly immensely.  

All debaters and public speakers have been excellent ambassadors for our School and are congratulated for their dedication, enthusiasm, and expertise this semester. Gratitude is also extended to the staff who have supported the Program, including Ms Anna Watts, Ms Nicole Horton, Mrs Susan Duffy, Miss Rebecca Reggars and Ms Vasiliki Spanos. 

Our enthusiastic and committed Debating and Public Speaking Captain, Anise Imam, has provided more details regarding student involvement within the Program and the Debating and Public Speaking Assembly in her accompanying article in this week’s Blue Ribbon.