Debating

Visiting author Phillip Gwynne with students

As an overview, Middle School English experienced significant positive change in 2013 with the holistic implementation of the Australian Curriculum, mapping programs across Years 7–9. In addition, changes to the assessment profiles and documentation have created greater consistency across the middle years. Our new programs have focused on creating engaging and dynamic units of work that develop our students’ English skills as well as their autonomy and group-work skills.

The interest in our new English extension classes, including a journalism project, was a highlight of 2013. Due to popular demand, this year our involvement with the Young Writers Programme at the Fremantle Literature Centre was expanded, with groups of students from Years 7, 8 and 9 spending four magical days developing their creative writing skills with some of Australia’s top young adult authors.

Cross-pollinating our courses with Drama and Debating programs has further enriched our boys’ English education. In conjunction with the Library, this was another successful year for the Brother Gerry Faulkner Creative Writing competition and the Visiting Authors program. Our Year 12 Literature students were fortunate to be able to spend a day at Curtin University experiencing the life of a tertiary student. They enjoyed the independence of being immersed in the aesthetics of the Humanities faculty. Also, our Year 12 Stage 3 students greatly valued the opportunity to attend a performance of Arthur Miller’s Death of a Salesman at the Heath Ledger Theatre. We were thrilled to be able to marry this experience with the study of the text in class.

Looking ahead to next year, we are pleased to announce that we will be hosting the English Teachers’ Association of WA Conference, here at the College. Mr Kealley and I are both on the ETAWA Council and are proud to be uniting our passion for our field and our school on 24 May 2014.

Lastly, I take this opportunity to thank Ms Claudia Swenson for her tireless support as Midde School Coordinator in Term 3. She and Mr Adam Kealley are both my invaluable peers. I greatly appreciate their formidable work ethic and expertise, as does the department. As you can see, from this year’s annual, the English, Drama and LOTE departments are running on all cylinders for the benefits of our personal professionalism and the educational enjoyment of our students. As Head to all three, I am very proud of all staff for their efforts.

Ms Lisa Mack Head of English

Mr Richard Herrmann Debating Coordinator

This year the Trinity College Debating Club had one of its busiest seasons. We started the year with our involvement in the Western Australian Debating League (WADL), for which our boys debated against a range of schools from across Perth. For the first time, we also participated in the AHISA Debating Competition in Term 3, for which we were pitted against private schools in debates held at Perth College.

Our success in the WADL competition was mixed. Our novice team, coached by Ms Tanya Vranjes, comprised of Samuel D’Souza (8.6), Nicholas Ellison (8.1), Basil Gerad Cyril (7.7), Andrew Le (8.3), Matthew D’Souza (8.6) and Jeremy Hansen (7.4). The team of highly driven and committed students worked their way through the season winning all of the debates in which they were involved. Samuel was awarded with a certificate commending his punctuality, effort and contribution to the team.

Our junior teams, formed by boys from Year 9 and Year 10 and coached by Mr Jones, had a constructive season during which a number of new debaters honed their skills. The boys overcame a number of challenges, including the difficulties of the topics, various time pressures as well as their lack of experience. They impressed all with the noble way they met these difficulties and I believe they are better speakers as a result.

The senior teams argued topics ranging from discrimination in religious institutions to the role of the media in our country’s leadership instability. Unfortunately with a chaotic and close-fought season neither of our senior groups made it to finals this year. I thank our older debaters for their efforts and commend them for the sportsmanlike way they conducted themselves over the season.

In May our two senior teams did battle in the inaugural Golden Heritage Club Debate in front of an audience of old boys. They debated the topic “that we should halve the number of teachers and double their pay” and were adjudicated by former debating captain Tom Durkin (’11). It was a great opportunity to showcase the quality of our public speakers to former students of the school, who enjoyed the opportunity to chat with the boys during the morning tea held after the debate. In Term 3 we submitted three teams to the AHISA competition where we trained up a number of new debaters in both junior and senior teams. Our involvement provides invaluable experience for those boys intending to participate in the WADL next year. All our debaters should be congratulated for their contributions, but in particular I would like to commend the more experienced students who recruited new debaters, as well as the inexperienced speakers who made such strong progress during what was a short season.

We ended the year with our Debating Gala Night, which was a chance for our novice, junior and senior teams to come together after a year of battling it out in the WADL and AHISA debating competitions. The night featured a tough-fought debate between a team of old-boys from TC debating history known only as the ‘All Stars’, and the ‘Young Guns’, who were formed by a group of current debaters. They were asked to debate the proposition that The Disney Company has been a force for good, with the Old Boys taking the affirmative and our current students opposing them on the negative. After pointing out that Disney gave us ‘The Lion King’ and generously offers “affordable family holidays”, the Old Boys narrowly won the debate. Students, parents and staff then shared pizza and stories of debates past. I thank Jeremy Ciccarelli (’12), Jack Dewsbury (’11), Tom Durkin (’11) and Laurence Coleman (’03) who came down to support our debaters.

I would like to thank our debating coaches Ms Tanya Vranjes and Mr Peter Jones for their contribution to debating this year. They have provided a great deal of moral and practical support in the administration involved with the two leagues, and their mentoring of our students has been wonderful. I encourage all boys interested in debating to come along to our first meetings next year, as new students are always welcome at any year level.

Mr Richard Herrmann Debating Coordinator