Wynberg hosts World Schools’ Debating competition

As a school that takes debating seriously, we were honoured to be one of the schools hosting a day of the preliminary rounds of the World Schools’ Debating competition which was obviously being hosted in South Africa this year. As this took part during the school day on 19 January, some of our girls were privileged to watch the top debating teams from Australia, Denmark, Malaysia and Mexico competing against each other in what proved to be top quality debating. The first session involved an unprepared debate with both teams debating the motion: “Alcohol should be banned.”

The afternoon session involved a prepared debate on the topic: “This house believes that newly democratized Arab nations should not allow religious parties to participate in elections.” This was a wonderful opportunity for some of our own debaters to practice chairing and timekeeping; clearly a valuable experience all round. We hope that our learners, especially some of the new Grade 8’s feel suitably inspired to join our own debating society or even to try out for the Wynberg Girls” High school team this year.

We were extremely proud of our school and girls when one of the adjudicators mentioned that  Wynberg was unequalled in the way in which we had organized and hosted the event and mentioned. One of the trainers from a winning team mentioned that he had been to a number of international events, and never had he heard as good a discussion springing from the debate from the floor. We commend our audiences: you made us extremely proud!