Debating has a topic to argue and teams are randomly assigned to be either for (affirmative) or against (negative) the topic.  Debaters are expected to be able to argue logically and rebut (argue against) the opposition 'on their feet' in order to win their case.  Every debater is marked out of 100 on Matter (what they say); Manner (how they say it) and Method (the structure and clarity of their arguments and case).  Teams must work together to construct a case and assign arguments logically, as well as construct arguments against their opposition's case.

Junior A teams are considered experienced debaters and must speak for 5 minutes each.  Intermediate A teams are experienced debaters and must speak for 7 minutes each.  Our Intermediate debaters have even higher expectations to present well-rounded perspectives on current affairs and demonstrate critical, higher order thinking. A greater percentage of their speeches are expected to be spent on rebuttal, with more advanced techniques such as comparative rebuttal being employed.  Intermediate A debaters also begin to use Points of Information (POI) where a question is asked of a speaker during their speech. The purpose of a POI is to undercut the point the opposition is making or to force the opposition to respond to a difficult question immediately.  As you can imagine, this is an incredibly difficult skill to both ask these POIs and answer them when asked.  Whilst debaters can opt not to address a POI, each team is expected to offer and accept 2 POIs throughout the debate.

Round 1 Debates

Junior A teams debated the topic: NAPLAN is worthwhile last Wednesday night at AB Paterson College.  

Fox 1 (Lucas, Brooke and Mia) and Fox3 (Ashley, Ella and Stella) were affirmative and Fox 2 (Millah, Bonnie, Phoebe and Eve) was negative.  Fox 1 and 3 were successful in winning their debate and Fox 2 argued admirably, but were unsuccessful in winning their debate.

Our Intermediate A teams debated the difficult topic:  Artificial intelligence is developing too quickly this Wednesday night at Trinity Lutheran College.

Both Fox 1 (Zak, Vicky, Amritha and Mehrnaz) and Fox 2 (Alexis, Jelena and Luke) were negative.  Both teams were awesome, but Fox 1 was successful in winning their debate.  Fox 2, while unsuccessful, fought hard and lost by a close margin.

I would like to congratulate all of our amazing debaters as well as the parents and friends who support us by attending and driving our debaters every week.