Debating Team Secures Archdale Shield for 2026

On Tuesday night, MLC School hosted the Grand Finals of the Archdale All Girls School Debating Competition. Having won in 2025, it was our turn to host again this year. The debating season began in early May, featuring seven preliminary rounds. We entered eight teams in the Shield competition and two teams in the Invitational section. Over the past four months, our debaters trained and competed weekly, showing remarkable dedication.

This competition awards three points for a win and one point for a loss, and the total points determine which teams advance to the finals. Seven teams made it to the Quarter Finals, with five moving on to the Semi Finals. During the Semis, topics are selected, and panels of three adjudicators judge each debate. This year, four Shield teams and one Invitational team from MLC School qualified for the Grand Finals.

All ten debates took place simultaneously, with adjudicator panels deciding divisional winners. MLC School entered the evening one point ahead of Monte and two points ahead of Kambala, who were our closest rivals for the overall shield. As both schools had teams in the Grand Finals, the awarding of extra points for division wins meant the overall winner was not clear until all debates were finished, making for an exciting and nerve-wracking night.

Thanks to strong performances, MLC School emerged as the clear winner for 2026. Our youngest debaters, the 7B team (Aashani Chandramohan, Caitlyn Rodrigues, Molly Xu, Mariella Tsolis, Alice Zhou), confidently defeated Tara to win their division shield.

The 8B team (Abira Sanan, Katie Zhang, Ashwini Kanesalingam, Elsa Liu, Sahana Ramesh) delivered a solid performance against Kambala to secure their division. The Year 9 team (Joumana Reehman, Aditi Knowles, Audrey Buck, Lauren Liu, Jenny Chen), known for their commitment, narrowly lost to Monte.

The Senior Invitational team, all from Year 11 (Rebecca Ho-Bui (Year 11), Yerina Kang (Year 11), Riya Singh (Year 11), Lindsay Zeng (Year 11), Pip McGuire (Year 10) ) remained undefeated throughout their competition, winning their Grand Final against Pymble decisively.

The Senior team (Joanne Chen (Year 11), Meena Kanthathas (Year 11), Stephanie Keo (Year 11), Alana Mellare (Year 11), Veronica Pan (Year 10) ), who have debated together for years, overcame previous close defeats and powered through the preliminary and final rounds to claim victory against Brigidine in a hard-fought Grand Final.

Special mention goes to the Year 11 Senior debaters, who, despite exam commitments, trained, competed, and won both senior divisions on Tuesday night, demonstrating true dedication.

With four wins out of five Grand Final debates, it was evident that MLC School ranked first among 23 competing schools. This achievement is a testament to the efforts of all 60 Archdale debaters and their six coaches over the past four months. Winning again this year was unexpected, making the recognition of our hard work particularly gratifying. 

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– Andrea Rowe
Oratory Coordinator