Hero photograph
National UN reps
 
Photo by Kristan Mouat

 Debating

Grant McNaughton —

We've had some great debates this year.

This year the Senior debating team (Oscar Mcguire [first speaker], Ben Clayton [second speaker] and Grant McNaughton [third speaker]) made the finals of the Dunedin Schools' Debating competition and broke for the semi finals for the Russell McVeagh debating tournament, unfortunately losing to John Mcglashan both times, when affirming on the motions “This house believes Donald Trump is good for American politics” and negating the (rather wordy) motion “The year is 1542, 25 years after the beginning of the Protestant Reformation. You are a devout Catholic lord of a small German town. Your feudal overlord has just converted to Protestantism and has demanded the conversion of his vassals. This house would refuse to convert.”

At the Russell McVeagh debating tournament Oscar McGuire was named most promising speaker and Grant McNaughton made the Otago regional debating team, which placed 7th nationally. Ben Clayton and Oscar McGuire also made the regional Gold Development Squad. At the DSD debating tournament Grant McNaughton was named the Best Speaker of the tournament and Ben Clayton was named the Second Best Speaker at the tournament.

Our second and third teams have been competitive, had fun and honed their skills for next year. The second team was made up of Bella Veitch, Alva Fieldmeier (debating in her second language) and Charlotte Dickie. The third team was Arayan Zarei, Jack Gilmore and George Sabonadiere.

In the Junior competition, both our teams have been very competitive, and almost made the break for the semi-finals. It's been great to see the seniors stepping up to coach and manage the junior teams.

All speakers have progressed significantly throughout the course of the year, practising every Wednesday lunch. We hope to field a competitive team next year that can take out the competitions and progress our speakers even more.