Congratulations to the Columba Junior 1 team who took out the Dunedin Schools Debating Junior Finals on Monday.

Columba Junior debaters have had an extremely impressive year. With two Columba teams entered in the Junior DSD competition, it was an excellent result for both teams. Columba 1 (Mary Mengel, Bianca van der Haegen, Tessa Smith) and Columba 2 (Nanni Ge, Alyssa Duthie, Jessica Mundy, Miriam Cosgrove) broke into the semi finals out of the many teams entered from all across the city. In a Columba v Columba semi, Columba 1 narrowly took the win negating that we should not provide healthcare to those refusing the COVID vaccine, and proceeded on to the finals to face Kings 1. In a very high quality debate, Columba 1 won in a 3-2 split affirming that we should ban zoos, and thus became the winners of Junior DSD for 2021. Congratulations!

In addition to this, Columba speakers also shone in the individual rankings. Bianca van der Haegen, Alyssa Duthie and Mary Mengel placed 4th equal; and Tessa Smith placed 1st overall. These are incredible results!

Columba can be very proud of these girls who have worked very hard and have come away with impressive results to show for it! We look forward to an exciting debating season next year after such a successful year for both Columba Junior and Senior debaters. Once again, a massive thank-you to Ms Togneri for her dedication to Columba debating.