Term 1 has got off to a wonderful start with strong results coming in from all our debaters. Approximately 40 students registered are across junior and senior clubs.

The NZ Debating Council Tournament was held at Tauranga Boys College two weekends ago.

Katikati College entered three sponsored teams in the New Zealand Debating Council Regional Tournament. The top 20 debaters (out of around 60 participants) are ranked. From our three squads -

1. Rory Robertson ranked 9th=

2. Grace Fotheringhame ranked 13th

3. Maddie Schnackenberg ranked 14th

Two of our teams also ranked highly overall. Out of the 28 teams debating, our Year 11 team comprising Grace Fotheringhame, Charlotte Schnackenberg, Emily Davison and Rory Robertson ranked 10th, . Our Year 13 team ranked 11th and included Maddie Schnackenberg, Phoebe Robertson and Lucy Gibson. The biggest shout out goes to our quickly assembled team of Davinder Kumar, Brecon Cameron and Caelan Cameron - all three were impromptu legends.

Thanks to Mrs Sue Fotheringhame for managing teams on the day.

In the year long Bay of Plenty Regional Tournaments the results so far are:

Juniors

Our fabulous Year 9s - Isla Willacy, Lily Crowley and Ariana Bluegum defeated TGC 1;

Our equally fabulous Year 10s Lola Meeking-Coad, Skyla Hunter and Lavleen Kaur (new debater) defeated ACG 1!

The moot for both was that colleges are content laden, and some content needs to be taught at home. Students had 30 minutes to prepare and had to speak for four minutes. Our Year 9s all managed this, in fact they had to be cut short!

Seniors

Our Year 11 team (Grace Fotheringhame, Charlotte Schnackenberg and Emily Davison) defeated TBC year 13A. 

Our other Year 11 team (Rory Robertson, Makayla Managh and Caelan Cameron) defeated Mt Maunganui 1. 

Our Year 12 team (Josh Macdonald, Caitlin Thorburn and Liona Vailea) was narrowly defeated by TGC .

All teams debated affirmative action in NZ.