Short Preparation Debating Pressure Produces Excellent Lessons for PLC Intermediate and Senior Debating Teams

Do you think our sportspeople are paid too much? Do you agree that 100 hours of driving is an unreasonable requirement for gaining a licence? Do you believe that schools should block YouTube?

These are just some of the topics our debaters have grappled with in their recent rounds of the Sunshine Coast Schools Debating Competition.

This fast-paced, high-pressure debating competition, held over the last four weeks, saw debaters allocated a topic and a side and given just 60 minutes to prepare their team’s case and their interconnected speeches. 

With only a dictionary and each other to work it all out, they learnt not just about the formal elements of debate structure and public speaking but most importantly, how to work effectively together to meet the deadline. 

This year, we welcomed current and past students to the coaching team and thank Noah Beasley, Lucy Dimond and Ben McCormac for their generous and expert support of our two Senior teams of Poppy Cleland, Franklin Stamm, Kiana Cambell, Ayrisa Jones and Kade Herbert (PLC S.2) and Sophia Smith, Olivia Boland, Jessica Hutton and Alexandra Schlotterbach. These two teams worked hard, learnt many valuable lessons and appreciated the expert knowledge, tips and support offered by these ex-debaters. 

We also acknowledge the enthusiasm and commitment of our Intermediate team of Harper Hogg, Samuel Roberts, Isabelle Jeha and Hamish Dimond coached by Head of English, Mrs Rae Hall. This team has been successful in making it into the playoff round to compete in the semi-finals.

We thank Mrs Virginia Schlotterbach and past students Noah Beasley and Makani Campbell for taking up the challenging work of adjudicating Junior, Intermediate and Senior debates this year. 

Mrs Rae Hall, Head of Department -English