A small group of Year 7&8 students went to Bucklands Beach Intermediate to compete in the SEZ debate competition during term 2. Their prepared debate was against Sommerville Intermediate, where they were arguing in favour of “exams being a productive way to assess students”. They won this debate and of the six teams that entered, they scored in the top 2. This meant they got to compete against Howick Intermediate in an impromptu final debate. They were given the topic of “this house believes that the voting age in New Zealand should be lowered to 14 years of age”. Arguing the affirmative (that it should be lowered), they won and took first place in the competition.
SEZ Competing team members:
Sarah Lecias – Leader/First Speaker
Kenny Te’o Vitolio – Second Speaker
Minjae Kim – Third Speaker
The whole competition was very friendly, off the podiums, and the students showed the school values very well as they made friends with their opponents. A special thank you to, mentors Adam Lynch (Year 10) and Diana Carrillo Trevino (Year 10) who supported and guided the team throughout the year.
Other club members who trained and supported the team were:
- Haixin Gao
- Emily Yang
- Joanna Dawn Johns
- Giuliana Taruc
- Lucia Phung
