A report by Jody Syme (Year 13), Debating Captain, 2021

Last weekend the Otago-Southland Regionals were hosted by New Zealand Schools' Debating Society at the Otago Business School. There were many great successes for all Columba College students involved.

Twenty four teams across ten schools competed in the challenging event, with the debates being extremely high in quality. Motions ranged from whether ex-convicts should disclose their crimes to employment companies, commercialisation of indigenous cultures, expulsion of students to whether students should be able to set their own classroom curriculum.

As usual, Columba posed the largest front, having four teams debate in the competition. These teams consisted of:

Columba 1: Jody Syme, Sophie Bowmar, Angela Fu

Columba 2: Sophie Davis, Skyla Murray, Anise Maclean

Columba 3: Zoe McElrea, Jasmine Davis, Nora Paicu

Columba 4: Tessa Smith, Shela Luckhurst, Caitlin Blacker

All teams performed exceptionally well, gaining plenty of useful experience as well as important feedback from top debaters across Otago. Luckily, Columba 1 broke 4th into the Semis (with the highest overall speaking points!), debating against Bayfield. They affirmed the motion ‘THW implement a Universal Basic Income’, losing closely to Bayfield in what was noted as one of the most entertaining and high quality debates of the tournament.

Excitingly, Sophie Bowmar was selected for the Regional Team, and she will be heading to Wellington in May for Nationals. This is an incredible achievement for a year 12 student. Jody Syme was named as a reserve for the Regional Team. Both Sophie Davis and Zoe McElrea were selected for the Otago Development Squad, as well as Angela Fu and Jody Syme being selected for the Otago Gold Squad.

All the students would like to thank Ms Togneri for giving up her weekend to support us, as we could not achieve our success without her. She is an absolute asset to debating and we thank her for her time and commitment she puts into making the debating club at Columba thrive.

Jody Syme (Debating Captain 2021)