PNGHS students participated in the Central North Island Debating competition held at Whanganui High school over the weekend.

For most of the girls, this involved five debates with speaking times of six minutes each and moots such as "This house regrets non-indigenous media creators using indigenous iconography and language in their work" and "This house supports governments putting major policy decisions into referendums." These moots were deliberately challenging and provocative as the aim was not only to get a winning school for our region but also to find the top three debaters to represent us at the National Schools' competition.

Those involved were Kate Coutts, Amy Macpherson, Emma Ogilvie, Nora Richardson, Emerald Ruhnayat, Esther Steer, Sjaan Toomey-Jakobs, and Hallie Williamson.

The Challengers team won all their debates (Esther, Amy, and Hallie) and Amy, was one of four in the whole competition judged Highly Commended. Most notably however, was Esther Steer, who won a place in the Central North Island Team. Esther will be debating in the national competition in Wellington later this year. 

Here is our roll of honour

2023 Esther Steer Central North Island Team

2023 Amy Macpherson Highly Commended

2018 Sophie Brokenshire, Tharushi Bowatte, Anna Dombroski Runners-Up in Finals

2018 Sophie Brokenshire Best Speaker

2018 Sophie Brokenshire Central North Island Team

2017 Lily Holder McFlynn Central North Island Team

2017 Sophie Brokenshire Central North Island Team

2016 Kaia Costanza-van Den Belt Highly Commended

2014 Isobel Pepper Reserve to the Central North Island Team

2012 Yige Cao Highly Commended

2010 Anna Hamer-Adams Highly Commended

2009 Alex Carwell Central North Island Team