The Northland Russell McVeagh Regional Debating championships were held on Sunday the 17th of March at Whangarei Girls High School. Seven teams from five different schools competed in three limited preparation rounds of debating followed by a final.
All of the students coped well with the variety of topics which were set including streaming in secondary schools an quotas for women in the police force. It was excellent to see a lot of younger speakers participating in the tournament, many of whom showed a lot of promise.
Kerikeri High Schools 1 broke in first place to the final. However, the break for second position was extremely close with Kerikeri High School 2, Kerikeri High School 3 and Whangarei Boys High School all having the same amount of win points and very similar speaker points. Kerikeri High School 2 narrowly edged out Kerikeri High School 3 on speaker points, making it a Kerikeri High School 1 versus Kerikeri High School 2 final for the second year in a row.
The topic for the Grand Final was ‘”This House believes that important medical decisions about children’s heath should be made by doctors and not by their parents.” Both teams created extremely interesting and compelling arguments which meant that the audience and adjudicators thoroughly enjoyed the thought provoking debate. Kerikeri High School 1 were announced as the winners in a unanimous decision.
Thank you very much to Margaret Northey for hosting us at Whangarei Girls High School and to Mitchell Cooper, Aria Newfield and Sam Bookman for adjudicating.
Congratulations to all of the students who received awards:
Winners
Kerikeri High School 1
Jesse Prendergast
Lucy Ellingham
Samantha Scahill
Runners Up
Kerikeri High School 2
Jason Leaming
Meg Murray
Cassy Osokin
Members of the Northland Team
Jesse Prendergast- Kerikeri High School
Lucy Ellingham- Kerikeri High School
Samantha Scahill- Kerikeri High School
Reserve to the Northland Team
Rachael Machado- Whangarei Girls High School
Highly Commended
Cassy Osokin- Kerikeri High School
Brad Olsen- Whangarei Boys High School
Promising Speakers
Eva Pearson- Whangarei Girls High School
Meg Murray- Kerikeri High School
Best Speaker
Jesse Prendergast – Kerikeri High School
