Debating

This year, the DAV Schools Competition, run by the Debaters Association of Victoria, returned in person, with various alumni supporting as coaches and adjudicators. A massive 116 students from the Senior School signed up this year, with Camberwell Grammar fielding 17 teams across four-year levels.

The students worked together to tackle complex topics over the course of five rounds, thriving in one of the world’s largest inter-school English-speaking debating competitions. Congratulations to the B Grade team of Patrick Homes, Ravin Desai, Alexander Harris, Isaac Lin, Jacob Clark, and Ben Wishart and the D Grade team of Bach Tran, Saveen Seneviratne, Owen Wu, Ethan Tran, Goldman Xu, Derrick Kwon, Will Li, and Justin Kwan who impressively won five consecutive debates in the region, making playoffs this year. Special mention goes to Patrick Homes for also being awarded a ‘Swannie’, recognised as the strongest speaker in the region’s B Grade. As of writing, the D Grade team remains undefeated, and we wish them the best of luck as they enter the quarter-finals in Term 4. Congratulations to everyone who debated this year; Camberwell Grammar is in good hands, given the vast range of talent and ability across this cohort.

Camberwell Grammar also found successes elsewhere. In April, the School held its annual internal simulation of the UN Security Council, the Gladwyn Cup. Delegates were tasked with representing an allocated country while tackling global issues regarding climate refugees, Ukraine, and North Korea. Following hours of intense diplomacy and debate, the team of Kerry Sun (Captain of Debating) and Ishaan Nandurkar representing France emerged victorious. Second place went to Alan Tian and Cooper Carbone as Mexico, and third to Charles Lewis and Finnian Mahaffy as China.

The strength of the teams was also demonstrated by their strong showing in Evatt, the inter-school version of the competition from UNYA, convened this year by past student Tom Sun (2021). Ten Camberwell Grammar teams participated in the preliminary rounds, seven of these teams progressed to the second round of semi-finals and three of those teams performed well enough to be invited to the grand final at the Victorian Parliament, ranking in the top 15 teams in the state. Congratulations to Kerry Sun and Ishaan Nandurkar, Alan Tian and Cooper Carbone, Alex Zhang and Lachlan Courmadias for this excellent achievement.

In late May, two teams participated in the Monash Asian Studies competition, with the team of Kerry Sun, Ishaan Nandurkar, Charles Lewis, and Akalanka Gunawardana winning three consecutive debates on contemporary issues in Asia, with Ishaan winning best speaker for the competition. Over the Term 2 holidays, the team of Cooper Carbone, Ray He, Alan Tian, and Kevin Xu won three law-oriented debates to advance to the grand final, coming runner-up in the Deakin Law Debate competition in a tight 2-1 split. Students also argued legal cases to law students acting as judges in the Scotch Friendly Moot, with Tommy Auwardt and Ravin Desai winning best speaker in their respective moots. In public speaking, Year 10 student William Lardner won the Boroondara Speaking Contest and, in Term 3, Debating Captain Kerry Sun partnered with his Camberwell Girls Grammar counterpart to create a new public speaking competition open to Years 9-12 for both schools. Well done to Ravin Desai (1st), Cooper Carbone (3rd), and Lachlan Courmadias (5th) for doing particularly well.

A huge thank you to our coordinators, Dr Melanie Mandusic and Mr Paul Double for making this all possible. This year, 2022, has been a triumph for debating and public speaking. I look forward to what Camberwell Grammar can do in the coming years, and I wish my very capable successor, Alan Tian, the best of luck in leading such endeavours.

Back Row L-R: Connor Inston, Aydan Yim, Patrick Homes, Ravin Desai, Ashton Nunn, William Allsop, Will Stamper, Nathan Bosmans, Tommy Auwardt, Henry Shirrefs, Edward Hare, Flynn Helmer, William Lardner. 6th Row L-R: Andy Congshen, Darcy Albert, Owen Henderson, Ishaan Nandurkar, Tobias Phillips, Tim Howard, William McPhee, Michael Fang, Harrison Varsamidis, Freddy Branson, Finnian Mahaffy, Henry Deayton, Stanley Xiao. 5th Row L-R: Charles Lewis, Jonty Neil, Shivansh Kakkar, Hao Ren, Jerry Jin, Byron Zhang, Lachlan Wong, Nicholas Banjac, Jacob Clark, Taran Rose, Alex Harris, Ned Chesler, Jay Babbar, Ioan Hillard, Brendan Tse. 4th Row L-R: Leonard Lee, Ray He, Ashwin Lagana, Alex Zhang, Isaac Soo, Henry Yan, Saveen Seneviratne, Kayson Wang, Arthur Lau, Nic Woosnam, George Trembath, Chris Lu, Lucas Rodriguez, Isaac Lin. 3rd Row L-R: Nigel Khong, Hayden Wong, Jerry Ji, Eugene Goh, Akalanka Gunawardana, Cooper Carbone, Alan Tian, Owen Wu, Alan Wang, Ari Canale, Jonathan Vais, Aidan McGrath, Lachlan Khuu, Minh Tran, Timothy Lee, Jarrod Leong. 2nd Row L-R: Mattias Ho, Ethan Ong, Isaac Tan, Matthew Treagus, Evan Chiu, Bach Tran, Lachlan Courmadias, Wilson Sha, Timothy Phan, Timothy Gunasegaram, Oliver Liu-Mu, Kevin Xu, Ben Wishart. Seated Row L-R: James-Perry Ma, Lidong Chen, Je-Rard Cheong, Lachlan Wei, Alan Zou, Ivan Zhang, Oliver To, Dr Melanie Mandusic, Kerry Sun, Gianni Cioffi, Joshua Hui, Justin Kwan, Derrick Kwon, Lachlan Young, Ethan Yeung. Absent: Eamon Wan, Allan Huang, Michael Huang, Julian Lim, Daniel Chen, Lachlan Harker, Lachlan O’Neill, Ethan Aw, Kyle Scheer, Hugo Thornton, Will Li, Goldman Xu, Ethan Tran, Daniel Feng, James Mills, Hamish Stuart-Adams, Lachlan Crosgrove, Joshua Carlin, Kensei Soegijono, Joshua H Ng, Chauncey Yu.