20 Aug 2018
JCS values its participation in the annual Premier's Debating Challenge that has the aim of developing the public speaking and reasoning skills of students. For the 2017 challenge over 800 teams entered from across NSW.
At every level of the challenge the debates involve
1-hour unassisted preparation, where the teams only find out the topic 1 hour before the debate, and are then given an hour without any help to prepare their case.
The JCS 5 – 6 debating program is run by two dedicated teachers Mrs Elizabeth Dwyer and Mrs Julia Cane who recently took the JCS teams to debate against Cooma Public with one win for Team B. After four such round-robin debates and a series of knock-out finals, the remaining ten regional champions meet at a three-day camp for a series of debates to determine the state champion. Best of luck to the teams for the next round.
Following the debate held at JCS for the first time!, the Premiers Challenge Adjudicator Elizabeth Dee sent a letter to JCS Principal Felix Bachmann that said,
"Your coaches are excellent. As a result of her coaching, Elizabeth Dwyer has achieved remarkable results. The top team in this region, from Cooma Public, were given their foundation skills by Elizabeth, when she worked there. They were Regional Runners Up last year and may very well win the Region in 2018. Her Jindabyne teams are a credit to her, and to Julia, demonstrating clearly enthusiasm, commitment and ability. The students are well mannered and their improvement has been very, very good. They have the foundation to compete strongly in 2019. I commend you on your support for debating in the school and including it as such an important part of the curriculum."
The ten students involved in the JCS Debating teams enjoy finding their voice and the challenge to learn to actively listen and to analyse and organise their thoughts.
Students Mia Warner and Will Broe have written the below article on their performance at the recent debate.
The 5-6 debating program at Jindabyne Central School is run by Mrs Julia Cane and Mrs Elizabeth Dwyer. The debaters at JCS give up their lunchtimes to learn debating from these amazing teachers. The students and teachers use google classroom to communicate and share their articles on the topics of their debates. The students have worked really hard to get this far.
On Wednesday the 8th of August, the Jindabyne debating teams debated against Cooma Public school. Team A went into planning straight away, to prepare to debate against the Cooma Public protestors, while Team B waited until their turn.
Then Team A started their debate, they lost by a small margin against the undefeated Cooma Protesters, however they made some very strong arguments. Meanwhile Team B went into planning time for their debate against the Cooma Public Puzzlers. Team B found themselves winning a debate for the first time this year. The topic for Team A's debate was ‘All tests in primary school should be banned', they were arguing for the affirmative. Team B's topic was ‘Boys and girls should attend different schools', they were arguing for the negative.
The adjudicator for both debates was Elizabeth Dee she gave both teams great advice and constructive criticism and told both teams how much they had improved.
Both teams look forward to their next debate.
By Mia Warner and Will Broe.