On Saturday 24th September 2011, the Grand Finals of the 2011 Schools’ Competition were held in The House of Assembly Chamber of Parliament House. Each debate began with a welcome from the Chairman of the Board of Debating SA, Mr Tony Houey.
Year 8
The day began with the Year 8 division debate at 10:00am with the Year 8s debating the topic “That movies teach us about life.” After a highly contested debate between Westminster School and Glenunga International High School, Westminster emerged victorious.
Year 9
The Year 9 debate followed at 11:00am with Glenunga International High School debating Pulteney Grammar School on the topic “That the mobile phone has become our master.” This was an outstanding display of debating and research from both sides. The Glenunga team however proved to be the better team.
Year 10
At 12:00pm the Year 10 debate between St John’s Grammar School as the Affirmative and Pembroke School as the Negative began. The topic for debate was “That Apple is at the core of our addiction.” The debate was awarded to St John’s Grammar School. This was the third time that the St John’s team had won a Grand Final.
Senior
The Senior division debate began at 2:00pm with Pembroke School debating Glenunga International High School. Glenunga successfully convinced the adjudication panel that freedom of expression is not the lifeblood of democracy.
Open
The final debate of the day was the Open division debate at 3:30pm on the topic “That World Government is the solution to world problems”.
Both sides had researched this topic extraordinarily well and the standard was excellent. In the end the Australian Science & Mathematics School team were declared the winners.
Debating SA would like to thank Miss Chloe Fox MP, Member for Bright for her support in securing the The House of Assembly Chamber.
Our thanks to the adjudicators for their expertise and all others who made the Grand Final such a special event.