My name is Emily and I am a Year 7 debater at ߺ College.
As a member of the D Grade team (year 7-9 students), I took part in the team's final debate on Monday, 17th August, which finished off the season for 2020.
I became interested in debating because last year, in Primary School, we did a little debate segment – and I got into the finals!
It was enjoyable, and the team worked so well together. When I saw it was an option for this year, I was excited to choose it as a co-curricular. Everyone on the team has been so nice, and have supported me when I have spoken with encouragement and suggestions.
I have enjoyed talking with the team and helping others with their speeches.
It is great that everyone is so friendly in debating. When I speak, I do sometimes struggle with rebuttals, but the older students are really good at that, so I learn a lot from them. It is very much a team community in debating at ߺ College.
As with everything, I have faced challenges, especially with rebuttals and I do tend to get a bit too passionate. I also know I need to shorten my definitions. It has been challenging doing this online considering sometimes Zoom can play up, as well for our first Zoom debate, my microphone didn’t work – but luckily that was resolved!
Originally, we were told that debating would be cancelled because of COVID-19. I was so relieved to hear we would still continue. Thanks to technology these days, our team has been able to communicate with email and Google Hangouts. At our last debate, we communicated on Hangouts and we shared zoom links, documents and rebuttal ideas.
It has been a great experience with everyone and I look forward to doing it all again next year.
