Report

On Wednesday, 17th August, the Years 7 & 8 Debating team took part in three debates online as part of the NSW Premiers Debating Challenge.
West Wyalong High School hosted the “Great Online Debating Day” which saw Henry Lawson High School, Grenfell and Cowra High School join with us over zoom meetings. Under the terms of the NSW Premiers Debating Challenge, we were able to field mixed teams of students across our three debates.
We chose the topics from a list of three options and numbering our preferences. The common option was then selected for debate. We had a coin toss to decide who was affirmative and who was negative. We were given one hour to prepare our side of the debate. During this time, we brainstormed, allocated arguments, thought of possible opposing arguments and wrote rebuttals. We then wrote the arguments down on palm cards.
Our first debate was against Henry Lawson High School B-Team. The topic selected under the area media was “That people should have to use their real name when posting anything online”. We were the affirmative team. We won after a close debate. The adjudicator provided the two teams with feedback to improve our debating performances.
Our second debate was against Henry Lawson High A-Team. The topic selected under the area sport was, “That we should ban all fighting sports like boxing and martial arts”.
Our last debate of the day was against Cowra High School. We lost the coin toss and were once again arguing the negative side. The topic selected under the area Education was “That students should be able to collect community service hours throughout their school career to count towards their ATAR”.
After winning our three debates, we have reached the Western NSW Regional Finals. We debate against Orange High School in Week 10.
Thank you to Ms Dwyer for her help in our preparation and organising the day as a combined debating day, which included organising adjudicators.

Report sourced via West Wyalong High School Facebook Page.