Inspiretownsville@ MAKING BEST POINTS
STUDENTS, EMAIL YOUR LETTERS TO IGNATIUS Park College has taken out the win in the senior category of the Townsville Interschool Debating Competition grand final.
The team – Stuart Smith, Joshua Pether, Andrew Jones and Bryce Kenyon – was runner-up in last year’s grand final, beaten by another team from Ignatius Park.
Ignatius Park head of English and debating coach Andrea Tarttelin said the topic of the grand final debate was “the pen is mightier than the sword”.
“Our boys had the negative side of that,” she said.
“Their key point was that actions speak louder than words. The other team from St Margaret Mary’s, their key point really related to how laws, international human rights legislation and treaties that ended wars and things like that are all written down, but the boys really pushed that idea that words are meaningless if it’s not supported by action.
“They had some clever ideas, I was very impressed.” Ms Tarttelin said it was really exciting to take out the win, particularly after a high-pressure grand final.
“They’ve worked very hard, and it really is a huge commitment to take on for these students on top of school work and part-time jobs and all the other commitments they have in their lives,” she said.
“I’m really proud of them, given the extra pressure of being in Year 12 and fitting it in with all their other work.
“It’s a really tough one. Usually there’s a couple of weeks of preparation time but for the grand final debate, it’s impromptu.
“They have two hours to prepare, and they are expected to speak for between six and eight minutes each at the end of that.
“During that two hours there’s no access to the internet, no teacher assistance, just the team who help each other.”
Ms Tarttelin said the team practised and prepared through a series of lunchtime meetings.
“They usually would have between five and six debates in a year and we would usually have three or four weeks notice,” she said.
“We brainstorm the topic and come up with ideas, and then the boys pretty much handle it all independently from there.”
Ms Tarttelin said debating had a lot of positives, including challenging the students intellectually.
“It builds confidence,” she said.
“For the second and third speakers, depending on their role within the team, they have to perform a rebuttal so they have to be confident in the way they present their argument to their audience. Certainly there’s a flow-on effect to their confidence that they use in presenting English assignments and other oral presentations at school.
“I think it teaches them to think really critically, to research and develop skills of sifting out important points of evidence to support what they’re saying.
“They have to look after each other a bit too.”