Junior Debating Training Day at Ballarat

On the Friday 17 October, our Junior Debating Team of 18 went to Ballarat Grammar, accompanied by Mrs Knight and Ms Lawrence. We had a great day full of fun, debating, training and a special lunch at McDonald’s.

Overall, we won 5 out of 6 debates, with a close loss by 2 points. All of our debaters did incredibly well - we didn’t have a single score under 74. Our top performers were Olivia Howes, Olivia Norman, Patrick Sutton and Bridget Laird, who each earned 77 points!

Thank you to Mrs Knight and Ms Lawrence for their never-ending support with the debating team, and especially for taking us to Ballarat so we could gain experience with in-person debates. The training we received from adjudicators was really valuable.

Congratulations to all our debaters. I encourage you to keep debating and making our school proud.

Lastly, I’d like to say how honoured I am to be Sacred Heart College’s first Junior Public Speaking and Debating Leader. It has been a real privilege to lead our juniors this year, and I hope the next person enjoys it just as much as I did.

Together, with Sophie Dunn (our senior captain), and Mrs Knight, we have achieved great things this year, particularly with our inaugural Public Speaking and Debating Week. Our Staff vs Student debate was well attended, and in the end, the students defeated the teachers with a 1 point win, affirming that ‘Australia should implement a 4 day school week’.

Debating is surely growing. Thank you to everyone involved in our team, who made this year’s program so great.

By Matilda Matthews