Congratulations to our Premier Advanced Debating Team of Grace Chen, Aneta Du and Lily Qi (Reserve Sofia Angelova-Bray) who won their fundraising debate against Carmel College’s formidable Advanced Open Team on Friday 4 June.
Both teams were invited by North Harbour Rotary to take part in the debate at Shore Junction together with the opportunity to have politicians David Seymour and Chloe Swarbrick, on their
teams. The moot was: “This House believes that sports teams and athletes should compete overseas during the Covid-19 Pandemic.”
Westlake was assisted by Green MP, Chloe Swarbrick and Carmel by the leader of the ACT Party, David Seymour, with our team taking the negative side. The main points covered to weigh up the pros and cons of allowing the teams and athletes to compete overseas, included the economic benefits, health risks and impact on athletes’ mental health.
Both teams were well matched, but by the end of the debate, the Auckland Secondary Schools Debating Association adjudicators felt that of the three main substantive points, Westlake won with the strongest arguments given to support two out of the three points.
Both teams really appreciated the experience and chance to debate with skilled parliamentary speakers who were both very funny and entertaining. We would like to thank Rotary North
Harbour for the amazing opportunity they provided for our debaters, and Mrs Fiona Shinkaya, Teacher In Charge of Debating, from Carmel College who invited the formidable Carmel College
Premier Team to participate in the debate.