Debating in the time of pandemic

After a long lockdown where students from the Year 7-10 Fort Street debate team spent many Monday afternoons strengthening their debating skills with online workshops, they were super keen to put their knowledge and skills into practice. Sadly, the Premier’s Debating Competition was abruptly cancelled due to the extensive lockdown. Nonetheless, I was able to give them the opportunity to do practice debates against other schools and in this process, they learnt valuable lessons, faced formidable competitors and won some competitions on the way.

On Tuesday the 16th of November 2021, the Year 8 Debate team consisting of Min Park, Eva Yuan, Eleanor Alonso Love and Ella Lo debated against Sydney Girls High School. The topic was “that all casts in Australian productions should be required to closely reflect the country’s racial diversity” and we were given the negative side to debate which in itself a very difficult moral obstacle to surpass.

On Wednesday the 17 of November 2021, the Year 10 Debate team consisting of Rose Kenyon, Ethan Lin, Sebastian Lenehan Choo and Hugo Ceran-Jerusalemy debated against James Ruse Agricultural High School. The topic was “financial assistance for higher education should be needs-based” and again we were given the fickle negative side to debate. The same Year 10 Debate team with the exception of Hugo and Dennis and the new addition of Johnathan Bonnice from Year 9 and Yexuan Yang then debated Sydney Girls High School on the subsequent Thursday the 25th of November 2021. The topic they were given was “that we should have a compulsory politics class for high school students” and we were given the affirmative side. Even though they proposed a very strong case, there was one small but crucial point put forth by Sydney Girls that our team did not sufficiently rebut, so we narrowly missed victory.

On Tuesday the 30th of November 2021, the Year 7 Debate team consisting of Aidan Sen, Miranda Leighton, Henry Huang and Aaditya Venkatraman debated against Sydney Girls High School. The topic was “that adults should be banned from being spectators at school-aged sports” and were given the negative side. The team was very well prepared, meticulously composing their points in a beautiful manner on their commercial grade palm cards and listening very carefully to the other team’s case so they could make their rebuttals more precise. Their attention to detail and poise speaking manner allowed them to defeat Sydney Girls. Moreover, Sydney Girls is the first school that this Year 7 team got to debate against since starting high school at Fort Street so this is an excellent way to begin their learning journey. It is also testimonial to the hard work and effort they put into their learning in every debate workshop, online and face to face, this year.

Win or lose, the most valuable thing that the Fort Street Year 7, 8 and 10 Debate teams gained from these experiences was the opportunity to practice debating against fierce competitors. As their Debate Coordinator, I was extremely proud of the efforts and dedication that each team brought to these practice debates. Every student demonstrated courage, intellectual integrity, resilience and teamwork skills which can only be learnt through seizing these challenging opportunities and discovering these skills for themselves. The feedback they received from the adjudicators in each respective debate will certainly be useful and help them win future debates for the school when the PDC competition resumes in 2021!

Ms C Truong

English Teacher/ Year 10 English Enrichment Coordinator/Year 7-12 Debate Coordinator