Debating Update

Debating day – Friday 12th June

by Lachlan Latimer (Year 7)

On Friday 12th, the year 7 debating team had a fierce matchup against Canterbury girls. The topic for the debate was ‘Schools should prioritise teaching Aboriginal/Torres Strait Islander languages over global languages.’

The team of four that participated in the debate were:

● 1st Speaker: Bon bon Lai

● 2nd Speaker: Sophie Kozlina

● 3rd Speaker: Jaydon Liu

● 4th Speaker: Taran Shekar

The debate was very close with both teams contributing insightful and nuanced arguments, however in the end Canterbury girls ended up with the win. The adjudicator congratulated both teams for an outstanding performance with comprehensive and well-rounded arguments. We would also like to congratulate the team for their wonderful achievement, and considering this was the first debate in the year, they did spectacularly well. We wish them all the best for their next debate!

Only a short time afterwards, the year 8 team had their clash which was also against Canterbury girls. The topic this time around was ‘That we should ban group assignments’ and some interesting and creative arguments were put forward to the adjudicator.

The team of three that participated in the debate were:

● 1st Speaker: Billy Hunter

● 2nd Speaker: Yvette Mason-Wong

● 3rd Speaker: Vihaan Prasobh

This debate was also a nail-biter with both teams very close together which made it very difficult to determine a winner. However, in the end …. won the debate and we would like to give them our utmost congratulations.

Overall, we had a massive day of debating with some interesting ideas to ponder on in the future taken away. We would like to thank both of the teams, for their creative talents; the adjudicators, for their time taken to listen to our debates; Canterbury girls, for welcoming us to debate against them and last but not least Mr Reveleigh for supervising the debates.

The debating teams will continue to compete in the Premier’s Debating Challenge for the rest of the year and we would like to wish both teams all the best.

Debating day – Thursday 18th June

by Kiyasha Chakraborty (Year 10), Sasha Anandh (Year 8) and Anjana Sanjeevan (Year 7)

Today’s first debate against Canterbury Boys was engaging and on the topic of sport. Fort Street’s Year 8 debating team was the negative speaker team, and while they lost, they had some great fun and enjoyment.

The first speaker was Yvette Mason – Wong, the second speaker, Joanna Phan, the third speaker, Jayden Wang and the fourth speaker was Billy Hunter. Their counter model was about how there were medical teams onsite to help with injuries, rules to block fatal blows, and changing the viewing times to 9:30 pm to 12 am.

We wish Year 8 all the best for their future debates!

Then, in the second debate, Fort Street’s Year Seven Debating team faced off against Canterbury Boys in an interesting debate, they argued against the topic ‘ that all that school swimming lessons should be compulsory for all year 7 and 8 students.’

Fort Street was on the negative team and provided compelling arguments regarding students prioritisation of extracurriculars, the loss of class time and the practicality of the affirmative argument to which Canterbury boys counterargued with the benefits of swimming lessons.

Fort Street successfully took the win with their compelling arguments, the adjudicator presented Fort Street’s case as strong and competitive. Both the teams were extremely well prepared and the debate was thoroughly engaging.

Congratulations to the Fort Street Year 7 Debating team!