New Zealand Schools’ Debating

The New Zealand Development Team have finished as runners-up at the QatarDebate mini-WSDC in Doha. New Zealand lost in the Grand Final to Team Chile.

On the way to the final they defeated the United Arab Emirates affirming “This House believes we should adapt to climate change, not prevent it”, China when opposing “This House believes we should ban boxing”, the United States when affirming “That reality tv does more harm than good”, and Sudan when affirming “This House supports military intervention in Somalia”. They lost one debate – to Chile.

New Zealand also did very well on the speaker tab:

• Nick Orr was ranked 7th
• Sophie Boot was ranked 5th
• Alex Morris was ranked 2nd
• James Penn was ranked 1st!

This is an incredible achievement for a team of year 10 and 11 students (some of whom have not even attended Nationals) and bodes very well for the future of New Zealand schools debating. Well done!

EDIT: Friday, 11pm – corrected topics and added Sudan debate.

A New Zealand Development Team of 5th formers from around New Zealand is currently in Doha, Qatar for a mini-World Schools’ Debating Championships. The tournament is designed for for developing countries and those new to the World Schools format; however New Zealand was also invited to attend.

With the current New Zealand team all having exams, the Executive (with the aid of regional convenors) selected a New Zealand development team to participate in the tournament. The team is: Sophie Boot (Christchurch Girls’ High School), Tim Robinson (St Bede’s College), James Penn (Wanganui High School), Nick Orr (Auckland Grammar School) and Alex Morris (Karamu High School).

The team is being coached by Clodagh O’Connor-McKenna (the current NZ team coach) and is also accompanied by NZSDC alumnus Ranald Clouston, who will be adjudicating the tournament.

The Council thanks QatarDebate for their generosity in flying the team to Qatar and hosting them for the duration of the tournament.