The Force of Speech @ BGHS

On the 10th of August, a Thursday, Birrong girls’ own year 10 debating team had made their way to Sefton high school, roughly holding together our efforts to put up a debate. We were to try our best that day, with the topic being medical care, our debate being about the morality of a parent entrusting their child with a doctor during a procedure that may be seen as anything a parent would find controversial. Farah, Lina, Ibtisam and I were given the ability to debate for this topic, saying that doctors should be allowed to conduct, but were met with a structural debate that left us defeated once again. Our adjudicator was another very smart and kind person, explaining her elucidation to us and giving us a very important concept; the concept of starting with your first speaker as your most critical and stand alone point before straying into the different arguments, instead of all members working on their own, different points, the structure allows for a ore stable and easy pathway to teamwork. We all thought that the opposing team made excellent points and was very focused and serious into what they were saying. Our first speaker, Lina, had a relatively short argument, but did incredibly well with her teamwork when we were in the mode of scaffolding and planning out our arguments for the debate. As usual, i was sectioned to second speaker, appreciative of what the adjudicator was saying about my arguments and acknowledging that I could’ve been doing better with how my arguments came about. Our last speaker was Farah, whom most of the confidence that day resided in. Even if she wasn’t able to speak her conclusion, she was fully aware of her surroundings and managed to make a solid rebuttal, argument and makeshift conclusion in the minutes she had. We were able to have a tour of the school afterwards, as a bonus for being able to debate with their team that day, which I had found rather informative when it came down to how different schools functioned.

On the 21st of July, a Monday, The Year10 debating team at Birrong girls high school had made a valiant and close effort debating against the team at Fairvale high school. Even after exchanging competittive glances and collaborating well with our most critical efforts, Birrong girls had lost close to the team at Fairvale, whom were some of the nicest students from one of the nicest school I had ever seen. Our topic was politics, debating that day on whether or not it would be best suited for the interest of citizens if a political representative in parliment was to resign or pass, would someone be voted in their place. Our team that day consisted of Ibtisam, Rabia, Cedra and myself. The team worked incredibly well that day, becoming highly productive as we discussed and learnt about a topic neither had any idea about, learning as we went along but grasping the concept well. Our adjudicator was a very kind person and gave our points equal praise and criticism. I acknowledge asking so many rhetorical questions and not being as clear with my techniques as i should have as a potential weakness i have improved on since then. Our first speaker was Cedra, who was excellent with her introduction and is what i would consider a fantastic first speaker. Her introduction was well said and brought a lot of points, fleshing them out before we can fully continue and making her time well spent. Next was me, and i have since improved from last time with my rebuttal and combated the team well that day. Lastly was Rabia, who capped off our arguments well, but was weak with her rebuttal only because the points I had written were to messy for her to read. Our adjudicator wasn’t pernicious nor stern, fair with how well we had tried on the debate but how missing one mark was a loss on our behalf. Even with how our team lost that day, we walked out of fairvale quite happy. with the ability to say that our discussions were stable, thorough and mature.

On the 29th of may 2023, the year 10 debating team at Birrong girls high school has debated with Chester hill high school and it was a grand, unforgettable experience. I recount the event fondly as i had been debated against, given feedback and learnt to work with the opposition and teammates. Our adjudicator was a very nice man and had given our team of 3 fair criticism. Our first speaker, Farah, has brought up our points for us, but was criticized of having only done that, not necessarily being a strong talker argument-wise, as mentioned by the adjudicator, in which she should have brought up our strongest points and let the 2 other speakers flesh it out. I, Anisa El-Abdallah, was the second speaker, and I can’t help but try and wonder what I could’ve done better, as i was thought by myself to be the base, middle point and head of it all, perhaps wondering if I had gotten too full of myself, I mustn’t keep my arguments soft and learn to rebuttal further, flesh out my points instead of being chicken. The third speaker, rabia, was quiet, but her points did a good job of capping off our argument. We were told through our feedback from the adjudicator had mentioned our lack of rebuttal, learn to contextualise and be more solid with our structure, to gain stability within debates.

That mobile phones should be banned in school

That mobile phones are undermining education.

Here is the adjudicating rubric I will used.

Welcome to the team!

Q. What can we expect?

A. Some frantic edgy experiences where have to think deeply, argue persuasively and deliver a meaningful performance. We will learn about each other and up skill our talents and reflect.

I will be distributing some documents from TAKING THE INITIATIVE

The first step is to study the documentation that articulates strategies and explains the rubric of what it takes to win.

Look at the Year 9/10 debating final.

The next step is to have a mini-debate and start to pace our delivery and get the feel for debating within a team.

On the 5th of August 2022, Birrong Girls High School, Raneem Al Khaled, Sima Jirjinazi, Eve Park & Sonya Salem specifically, versed East Hills Girls High School in debating. The topic for this debate was ‘ That climate change policy’s should be determined by a panel of scientists not the government’.
Birrong Girls was on the negative side of this debate and took home a win!
Some feedback to apply in the future is to focus on the main topics that the opposing side is trying to covey, and try to embody the ‘even if’ rule. A rule stating that ‘even if’ the point that the opposing team in trying to covey is successful, then you would point out something that would make that reason vain.
All in all , it was a successful debate for Birrong, and we hope to apply the feedback given in the future.

On the 9th of the June 2022, we competed in a debate against Sefton High School. The topic for the debate was “Schools should avoid letting children deal with contemporary political issues.’ Our team was on the negating team and we successfully smashed them. Our first speaker Jaydah, second speaker Sireen, third speaker Misk, scribe Hamidah and helpers, Rihanna and Fatima all contributed to our victory. The adjudicator gave us beneficial feedback such as applying relevance to the topic and linking to the team model. Definition is crucial (influences the debate) and the evidence links back to reality, expanding on the examples. We are all keen and looking forward for round 2 of our journey debating!

On the 31st of May 2022, we competed against Chester Hill High School. The topic for this debate was “The Top Students In Every Year Should Tutor The Struggling Students In The Year”. Our team fought on the affirmative side and successfully delivered our points across to the adjudicator. Our first, second, third and fourth speakers worked together to achieve a win in the Year 9 Premiers Debating Challenge. However, we still have a long way to go, and have taken in the advice given by the adjudicator for future Debates. Some of the advice was, better structure, longer arguments, and a model structure. With this feedback we will improve our debating skills for next time.

Debating Feedback. On Friday 27 May we versed Macquarie Fields High School. Our debate topic was- That we should banned single-sex schools. Birrong Girls High School was the affirmative side, Macquarie Fields was the negative side. Allie Pitt gave us feedback for our team to improve on such as attempting to engage with the other side, dismaterial- most important points, irrevelant- how does this effect people socially, quantity of education- why do they experience communication, didn’t direct with the argument, why? why is this in our speech- talk about the other teams rebuttles, why are things happening, and make it stronger. Overall, our team did quite well for our first time deabting, but obviously there are some improvements to make.

Hello, my name is Husna. I am super grateful to be a part of the debating team and I am pleased with the team that I am working with, as well as our mentor Mr. Davidson. I can’t wait to work alongside all of my team-mates and do our team proud.

For our first mini-debate, I reckon my strong points were confidence and my loud clear voice. I am excited to develop on those skills. I reckon what I could have done better is have better structure to my arguments, as to me it felt I was going on a rant and speaking before thinking. I also want to improve upon my conclusion, and improve upon the way I directly speak to the opposing team and the person I’m rebutting. I hope that I can learnt to be quick-witted and think of an excellent rebuttal on the spot next time I’m debating.

I would appreciate another mini-debate next week so that I can engage with my team and further develop my skills before we verse another school. Thank you all.