On Wednesday the 31st of August, two of our junior debating teams went to the semis and finals of the Dunedin Schools' Debating (DSD) competition. OGHS 1 (Orla Jackson, Lily Robertson, Allison Han and Melitiana White) and OGHS 4 (Phoebe Ashdown,, Lily Falcous, Sam Espejo and Mariam Reitveld) faced off in the semis debating the motion "This house as a feminist would only vote for female candidates" where OGHS 1 took it out winning with a 2 - 1 split between the judges.

OGHS 1 then went on to face Columba 1 in the finals with a close debate where they got 2nd place with the judges once more in a 2 - 1 split. OGHS were negating the motion "Assuming it was possible, this house would colonise Mars".

All these amazing achievements were topped off with fantastic results in the overall speaker rankings.

Allison Han placed 2nd best overall, Emma Small placed 3rd, Lily Robertson and Phoebe Ashdown were 4th equal and Lily Falcous placed 6th. These amazing achievements meant that half of the overall best speakers in Dunedin were from OGHS!! Congratulations to these two teams for their wonderful achievements this season and well done to everyone who competed. Many thanks to Mrs Chapman who facilitates transport and team organisation for these girls!!!

From Mrs Chapman and the Junior Debaters: A HUGE thanks to Juju Moharram, Jenny de la Harpe and Ella Richardson who have been skilled, generous coaches to our five junior teams, preparing fun workshops and sharing so many lunchtime coaching sessions with our new and now very-keen debaters.