Teachers v. Students The debating fight

Debating is an essential skill that teaches students to work as part of a team to reach a common goal, organise ideas and collaborate. It also allows students to express their ideas and articulate their thoughts clearly.

MacGregor State High School has always had a passion for debating, seen through our extra-curricular debating teams, which encourages young voices and bright minds to come together to practise their public speaking and critical thinking skills. Four teams in Year 9, 10, 11 and 12 competed in the 2022 Queensland Debating Union Competition, entering against other schools from the South East Queensland area, with our Year 10 team making it into the regional finals for South East Queensland.

The teams were tasked with defending a topic designated to them, in some cases with only one hour of planning. We are very proud of their achievements in this competition.

On the 17th of August in the Outdoor Learning Area, the Year 12 debating team came together for one final debate against the teachers, the topic, “That homework should be banned.” The students were on the affirmative side whilst the teachers were on the negative side. The student’s team comprised of Year 12 Leaders Joseph (First Speaker), Sally (Second Speaker), Alex (Third Speaker) and on the teacher’s side were members of the English Department, Ms.Thiris (First Speaker), Mrs Culshaw (Second Speaker) and Ms McKenna (Third Speaker).

All were given only two minutes to argue and defend their point.

The debate was a formidable fight of wits and words, with both teams defending and reinforcing their arguments from the other in order to gain the upper hand. There were statistics, there was the divulging of hilarious vignettes, but in the end, despite the students vaillant fight, the teachers took the win.

The debate was an entertaining and informative discussion, which shows the passion of our debating teams at MacGregor State High. We look forward to what else our students bring to the debating menu.

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