On the first Saturday of the term three holidays, Manvi Sharma, Hope Glensor and Julia Toma entered the Impromptu Cup, which was held at the Pipitea campus of Victoria University. This is a full day debating tournament where students debate in teams of two, speaking for six minutes, after only ten minutes to prepare their case.

The students won their first three debates and lost their fourth to a highly experienced Wellington Girls’ College team. Sitting on three wins placed them in the top six teams of the competition and they narrowly missed out on breaking for the semi-finals on speaker points. All the teams who made it through to the semi-final were composed of year 13 students who compete in the Premier A grade in Wellington, so the team (who are all year 11 and have been in the Premier B grade this year) can be so proud of how well they did. Their success bodes well for their future in debating!

Particular thanks to the Wellington Speaking Union convenors for all their hard work on the tournament and to our two Premier B coaches – Hannah Sema and Isabella Cash – who have generously taken time out of their first year at university to work with the team all year.