����AV

Smooth talkers

Comfortable on the negative side once again, ����AV’s Year 9 Archdale Debating team won convincingly against Kincoppal last Tuesday at St Catherine’s. ����AV’s argument against the topic, ‘Overseas adoption should be banned’, won in a unanimous decision by three adjudicators.  With Chiara as first speaker, Hayden as second, Lulu third and Nat as the hard-working fourth speaker, Kincoppal’s argument in favour did not stand up to ����AV’s ferocious rebuttal.

The debate revolved around the wellbeing of adopted children. ����AV’s argument was that a ban could encourage sub-standard adoption facilities, that parents should have freedom of choice, and that overseas adoption would boost diversity in Australia.

“Difficult issues made the debate extremely challenging,” said Natalie, “These included the wellbeing of children sent overseas, the refugee crisis and bullying.  We had to consider the wellbeing of all stakeholders and potentially far-reaching outcomes the proposed policy.”

Next week the awesome Archdale foursome will argue against MLC in the grand final at Abbotsleigh at 6:30pm, on Tuesday September 5, and we wish them all the best.

Not to be outdone, Years 3 to 6 public speaking finalists held an audience of hundreds in the palms of their hands yesterday in The Independent Theatre. Parents and grandparents flocked to hear a dozen girls speak on topics such as ‘What’s in the back of my garden?’, ‘How hard can it be?’, ‘If I could run the UN one day’ and ‘What’s better in sport - winning or participating?’.

All competitors - Bella, Lexi, Juliet, from Year 3 and Bethany and Lucy from Year 4, Sophie, Mae and Charlie from Year 5 and Sophie, Emily and Lily from Year 6 -  spoke extremely confidently, perfectly clearly and most amusingly.

Entertaining interpretations of topics included Lexi’s tale of frustration ‘How hard can it be’ and Juliet’s strategy for helping the UN have much more fun. Of the Years 3 and 4 speakers, Bethany won for her engaging discussion of the values of participating vs winning in sport. Of the Years 5 and 6 speakers, Lily won with her expose of the difficulties of the job at hand - her talk, ‘How Hard can it be’ covered the event itself, Junior School public speaking at ����AV. Sophie’s clever yet relaxed rhyming delivery on “How hard can it be?” made it all look so easy that she was highly commended by the judges. All Years 3-6 girls deserve congratulations for participating in the public speaking competition, as do semi-finalists and yesterday’s wonderful speakers.