We are the Debating Leaders of 2021 and we would like to explain a bit about the Debating Club.

Towards the end of last year, we were offered the opportunity to do Debate Club on Friday at lunch. The HICES debaters from last year who are now in Year 7, came and taught us some tips with Mrs Butler. This year, we are the HICES debaters and every Friday morning we come to school early to practise and learn to debate with Mrs Butler. 

Our first formal inter-school debate will be on Friday 26 March 2021. We will be debating against Broughton Anglican School on Zoom. The topic for Friday is that, “…smart phones should be banned for all school students in school”. This year, the first few debates will be online. It is unfortunate that we don’t get to travel as a team on the bus and visit each school in person, but it means that we get to have a very different experience and we still get to compete. We have been learning heaps with Mrs Butler and two Year 10 students, Jake Fleischer and Maayan Granot who have volunteered their time this term to help us learn. Together, all three have helped us improve and learn more and more about debating skills.

We are looking forward to all our debates in the future, even if we don’t win. Most of us used to think that debating was a competitive sport, but we now know that it is about learning and getting to do the things you love as well as meeting new people. 

By Julia Manoy and Marco Meer – Debate Leaders 2021