On Saturday March 3, for the first time in at least ten years, seven Katikati College senior students represented our College in senior debating at the New Zealand Secondary Schools Regional Debate Finals. Kitted out in blazers and ties they drove in to Tauranga Boys' College to face off against the best debaters from almost all the secondary schools in the wider Bay of Plenty.

The motion for the first round was This house supports compulsory voting. This was a prepared debate and each speaker had to speak for eight minutes! Our two teams comprised:

Liam Jackson, Phoebe Robertson, Davinder Kumar, Stella Hamilton-Wallace, Madeline Schnackenberg, Natalie Rochat and MacGregor Willacy.

These students then went on to complete three impromptu rounds over the remainder of the day. The competition was relentless and the standard of speaking was very high. The teams secured a win over Waihi College and very narrowly lost against other schools.

It is exciting for the College that these representative students have now decided to pursue debating permanently and form a Debating Society,which will now participate in the Bay of Plenty year-long competition.  Some of them will also assist coaching our younger teams who will be in the same competition at a Year 9 and 10 level.

Finally, Katikati College is very proud to announce that of the 60 or so debaters Natalie Rochat ranked 16th and MacGregor Willacy 24th.