Warringah Independent Schools Year 7-8 Debating Competition

On Wednesday 8 May, Covenant hosted the Warringah Independent Schools Year 7-8 Debating Competition. It was quite an international gathering, as we welcomed teams from Galstaun College, the German International School, Northern Beaches Christian School and the Sydney International Japanese School.  So many Covenant students were interested that we could have fielded more than our two debating teams for Year 7 and one Year 8, supported by some wonderful and willing helpers; our chair-people, time-keepers and runners who did anything asked of them! They also used their lunchtimes to prepare and some had never formally debated before. All three teams worked very well together against close competition, with all Covenant teams winning their debates which were adjudicated by other schools' staff members. The topics were ‘That social media is ruining our social lives’ and ‘That it is harder to grow up today than in the generation before’. It was a wonderful opportunity and a great encouragement to students and staff from all schools participating.

Here are what some of our intrepid debaters had to say about the day:

Challenges:

"The topic was fairly difficult and the time we had to prepare was short. At the start it was a bit of a challenge to work together but as time went on, we got better and better at working together. We all listened to each other and helped one another. It was also very nice to see that our work payed off after a fantastic win of our debate." 
"The most challenging thing for me was thinking of the rebuttals. The first speaker on the other team’s speech went very quickly and it was hard to catch onto things."
Learning: 

"I feel like the debating experience really taught me some teamwork." 
"I learnt that when debating you need to have a team that works well otherwise you could end up arguing." 
"I learnt about how debating actually worked."
Highlights: 

"It was a really fun and interesting experience." 
"Other things that were enjoyable were meeting the other schools."  
"I got to work with others, meet people from other schools and do a real debate and learn more about it and how it works."  
"... and of course - lunch." 
"I got to see some awesome debates."