DEBATING TEAM Junior Open
Senior Open
By Grace Stanners
By Aidan Toop
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he Pukekohe High School Junior Debating Team continued debating despite the first lockdown interrupting the competition. This meant that a reshuffle of the teams was required as we lost and gained a few members once the season restarted. We agreed to trial online debating and contacted other teams throughout Auckland using a website designed specifically for debating called Yaatly. The thought-provoking moots, such as taxing fast food and parental control of social media, proved challenging and rewarding. We managed to avoid losing a few of our debates by default due to a few last-minute stand ins – thanks to Nooroa Tonorio, Alyssa and Liam Mould. While we weren’t always successful, our confidence improved, and we developed some great skills. Celeste Nyatsanza (from the Advanced Open Team) also adjudicated for the Junior Open category and will be continuing to do so into next year. The competition was a steep learning curve for all of us as and we’re looking forward to coming back stronger next year!
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his year only one Senior Open team competed in the senior open category. The team decided to participate in online debating for a change, due to the covid-19 outbreak. We found this easier as we wouldn’t have to travel from school to school. We debated every second Tuesday after school and would not receive the moot until an hour before we were due to start debating. We debated a series of moots relevant to current events, for example: paid internships, colonising Mars, and banning TikTok. This year’s members were Ellen Smith, Isadora Rueckert Nichio, and Aidan Toop. Thank you to Ms. Sayer for helping everyone with planning for the debate and bringing snacks for the team and Mr. Dissanayake for monitoring us. We’d also like to thank Zackery Wong from Auckland Schools’ Debating for running an excellent training day with us in term one.
Advanced Open By Celeste Nyatsanza
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his year’s Advanced Open Team was made of Ashleigh Higgs, Hannah Keppel, Celeste Nyatsanza and Ayla Johnstone, and as previously mentioned we debated against other schools through Yaatly (a platform designed specifically for debating), as opposed to seeing them face-to-face. This came with a whole new set of challenges that we don’t come across when we’re debating in person, such as issues figuring the website out, connection issues and even low battery. While we weren’t successful in the first debate of the season, we soon got into our stride and won our other three debates. A few of the very compelling topics we had to debate were whether ex-convicts should be allowed to pursue careers as professional athletes and whether minorities should have their own separate schools. We very narrowly
missed getting into the knockout rounds – we were the only team to win three out of four debates and not advance – but we came away with some valuable feedback and we’re keen to get back into it next year! Thank you to Ms Abbott and Miss Sayer for the support and coaching!
“I’m falling in and out again” - Josh Soole 84 | DEBATING TEAM | PHS YEAR BOOK 2020
