Our Junior Debating team came second in the Dunedin competition this year. They battled their way through the semi-finals against Trinity, arguing that it is better to play for a high-grade football team with less game time than the stress of being in a middle grade team and being the best player!  They continued to argue valiantly and very well for the compulsory teaching of te reo in schools, but against a much more experienced Columba team.

What was particularly impressive about our team is that our top Junior team consists of three Year 9's: Emma Walker, Ashling Coffey, and Chihiro Smithies. Chihiro Smithies gained 5th overall in the Dunedin-wide competition, which is particularly impressive as she is competing with Year 10's. What is even more impressive is that on the night of the semi-finals and finals, we pulled in two others new to debating this year: Maryam Karkar and Yiling Zhang.  Ashling was overseas, and Emma had to go back to OGHS to perform a starring role in the Junior Production. All three proved themselves to be fine debaters, although interestingly all speak a different home language than English (which shows the value of learning languages too!)

Many thanks to the Junior Debating coaches this year, especially Ciara Coffey & Harper Dean.