Year 11 students David Laxon, Eric Shen and Vaibhav Nayyar (pictured above, left to right) have been crowned Auckland Premier Junior Debating champions.
The trio competed in the most advanced level of debating for this age group – Year 11 and younger – with 32 teams entered from across Auckland, representing a wide range of schools. They debated every second Wednesday evening at Auckland Grammar School, beginning in March.
Assistant HoF English Diane Pipe said this is a limited preparation competition, which means the moot is announced one hour before the debate and the teams have one hour to write a six-minute speech on the given topic. They then debate in front of an experienced Auckland Schools Debating adjudicator, who decides which team has debated best and has countered the opposition team’s argument.
She said, “The boys had a number of challenging moots and moved successfully through the rounds until they reached the final. Through this time they learned to co-ordinate well as a team, and they honed their debating skills in response to the feedback from the adjudicators.
“The final was held last Wednesday at MAGS in the Maurice Hall Building and we were debating against Diocesan Girls. The moot was ‘That this house would not allow anonymous sources for journalists” and our team was affirming, which means we had to agree with the moot. We won, and David Laxon was awarded the title of Best Speaker for the debate.
“This was a great win for the team and an acknowledgement of their dedicated hard work throughout the season.”