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GIRLS’ SCHOOL FESTIVAL
The debating society participated in the National Girls’ School Festival held at Collegiate Girls’ High School this year. Representing Wynberg Girls' High School were Raelene Adams, Anja Hendricks and Sheree Lang.
We began by debating in three preliminary rounds against Queenstown, KHS and Eunice. The motions at hand were: ‘Equality in education can only be achieved through the scrapping of school fees’, ‘Individuals should be allowed to take the law into their own hands’ and ‘Beauty pageants are demeaning to contestants’. Wynberg’s debaters dislayed incredible insight and brilliant debating skills.
After winning these three preliminary rounds, we moved on to compete in the semi-finals. The semi-finals were against Parktown Girls’ High School and the motion was ‘The tragedy of women is that they all become like their mothers’. Once again, the debating team did Wynberg Girls' High School proud and we we chosen to debate in the final round.
The final debate was against Pretoria Girls’ High School and the motion was: ‘The pot of gold at the end of the rainbow has been stolen’. The debating team had never before been confronted with a motion of this kind and, as the opposition, they were forced to run a purely rebuttal case. This did not hinder their outstanding ability, as they won the entire tournament!
Not only did Wynberg Girls' High School win all 3 preliminary debates, the semi-finals and finals, we also received all 5 best speaker awards. Congratulations to Anja Hendricks and Sheree Lang for this amazing achievement.
ROTARY DEBATING COMPETITION
The Wynberg Girls' High School Debating Society entered the Rotary Debating Competition at the beginning of this year. We were placed in a pool with 5 other schools, namely: Reddam House, Strandfontein High, De Kuilen, Hector Perterson and Good Hope.
The junior team who are debating in this competition are Nonkululeko Guma, Nandi Ganda and Raelene Adams. The senior team consists of Christine Friest, Anja Hendricks and Sheree Lang.
We have already participated in the first four rounds of the tournament. Both teams have only lost one debate each. More importantly, however, Raelene Adams and Sheree Lang have received Best Speaker Awards.
We would like to congratulate all debaters for their brilliant performance in all their debates and thank Ms Miles for her continuous support and encouragement.
The final results for the competition have yet to be announced, however the school can be assured that the debating teams provided outstanding comptetion to all schools involved
DEBATING AT WYNBERG
Our first term began with a bang as the new Debating year opened. The number of learners involoved in the Debating Society has increased dramatically. New Grade 8’s also flocked to join this thriving society.
Our biggest internal event in the first term was to publish our very own ‘Debating Manual’ which would assist all debaters to reach their full potential. This book was written by Christine Friest, Anja Hendricks and Sheree Lang and is a valuable tool for any debater.
In order to teach all new members how to debate, we ran workshops. The first workshop was a first speaker workshop held by Christine Friest. Christine explained to the girls how to evolve into eloquent opening speakers. Anja Hendrick’s workshop followed which focused on Second Speakers. Anja introduced the girls to rebuttal and explained to them how to conduct a second speaker’s speech. The final workshop was a Third Speaker and Definitional Challenge Debate workshop held by Sheree Lang. Sheree showed the girls how to construct brilliant rebuttal, how to handle points of information and how to go about launching a definitional challenge or protect their definition. These workshops empowered the girls to mould themselves into newly formed debaters.
These ideas were able to be put into prcactise when Wynberg Girls' High School debated against Wynberg Boys’ High School, Rondebosch Boys’ High School and Herschel Girls’ High School. Many new debaters participated in these debates and proved to be very successful. We won 2 out of 3 debates against Herschel, 1 out of 3 debates at Rondebosch and all our debates against Wynberg Boys’ High School. Congratulations are in order to Lauren Ingram and Nandi Ganda who received Best Speaker Awards. We were extremely proud of all girls who participated.
Emphasise has also been placed on training our junior debating team. These girls’ debated against Rhenish Girls’ High School, Springfield and Westerford. They won all of these debates and gained invaluable experience which they have carried into several other competitions. The senior team have received a coach, who assists them with strategical flaws. This has proven to be extremely beneficial.
We ended the term with attending a Workshop at SACS. This workshop reinforced everything that we had learnt throughout the term.
The first term was an amzingly successful term for the debating society and we look forward to an equally challenging second.
SHEREE LANG
TOPIC OF THE WEEK
Topic of the Week takes place every Wednesday at second break in room 6, where a regular crowd meets to express their views and challenge each other over the hottest current issues. Here they learn to develop their arguments clearly and logically in an informal and friendly environment. All interested and potential debaters are encouraged to attend and voice their opinions.
Anja Hendricks
PUBLIC SPEAKING
A very exciting competition took place in the first term at D.F. Malan High School. It was a public speaking competion in which Sheree Lang did exceedingly well.
Centered on the topic of borders, Sheree tackled the task in a different, extremely thought provoking manner. She entitled her speech “Bored with Borders”.
Concentrating on trade barriers and its disadvantages, she made a remarkable impression and came second overall.
WELL DONE Sheree!
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