Affirmative! Excellent Debating on Show for the Final DAV Round

The final round of the Debating Association of Victoria (DAV) took place on Tuesday 6 August at Bendigo Senior Secondary College (BSSC).

Senior Debaters

The Catherine McAuley College (CMC) Senior Debating Team (Charlotte Brook, Cameron Fields and Samuel Angove) went up against the hosts in a ‘Secret Topic” debate. For secret topics, students are given just one hour, with no resources to plan for their debate. This requires both significant general knowledge and the ability to think quickly. The secret topic for our students was “That university study in Australia should be free for all students”. The CMC team argued the affirmative case and ultimately won this debate against the BSSC team.

Congratulations to our senior debaters, who are now turning their attention to preparing for the Frayne Speech Festival, which will take place in Geelong next Friday 16 August.

Mr Matthew Angove, Director of Learning & Teaching – St Mary’s

Junior Debaters

Our Junior Debating Team, Olivia Caldow, Pollyanna Smith and Emma de Bruyn, were given the affirmative on the topic “That refugees should have full access to the Australian welfare system”. This brought about some good research into the definition of a refugee (as opposed to an asylum-seeker) and Australia’s international obligations to refugees.

We narrowly lost to Girton in the event, but Pollyanna was declared the Best Speaker of the debate.

Alistair Killick, Learning Tutor, Gifted & Talented Support