Somerset Debating has seen yet another vastly successful year. We entered the most teams of any school in the competition (17), and 10 of those teams progressed to Round 16; also more than any other school! Four teams made it to the quarter finals, a great feat given the highly competitive nature of the Gold Coast Debating competition. 

Our most successful team, however, was our Year 8 Junior A Team 3, who finished Runners-up in their Grand Final at Bond University. Consisting of Emily Nickels, Noa Chester-Haviv, Ayla Chirathivat-Geralds, Mia Richards and speaker of the night Abigail Brinkworth, the team faced off against King's Christian College Pimpama as the affirmative in a gruelling debate over the topic: Children need more protection from the media. This is particularly outstanding given four out of the five team members had never done debating before this year! Well done, girls.

The future is bright for Somerset Debating, with a particularly strong presence in our Year 7 and Year 8 cohorts (with five and six teams respectively!) We cannot wait to see what they have in store. 

Throughout their time with Somerset Debating, the debaters learn teamwork, communication, confidence, and many more real-life skills, all whilst having fun and smashing the competition! We have also had a very strong leadership cohort this year. For the first time ever, we appointed three Debating Captains: Nada Wilson, Antonio Lin, and Ella Kirk. It has been a pleasure being this year’s Debating Captain, and I, along with my fellow captains, could not have asked for a more eager, engaging, and talented group of young debaters to mentor. 

After an incredibly successful 2021 season, Somerset Debating is only getting bigger and better! We cannot wait to see where the future takes us.  

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