Debating provides students with important opportunities to build confidence, self esteem and develop essential life-long skills. If we can speak publicly and convey our ideas and thoughts coherently and passionately, we have a valuable tool that can aid us in our public, private and future lives.
We have two teams at Parklea Public School:
- The Premiers team
- the Ridges team
The Premier's Debating Challenge is open to all NSW government schools, with the aim of developing the public speaking and reasoning skills of students from Years 5 to 12. Every debate in the challenge is a 1 hour preparation debate. Teams do not know the topic or which side of the debate they are on until 1 hour before the debate starts. Once the preparation time is up, 3 speakers from each team take turns to speak, with a 4th team advisor, helping out during preparation and during the debate.
The Ridges Friendly Debates is open to local school in the Ridges area. Teams receive the topics and their position weeks in advance and that gives teams the time to plan and prep for each argument. The aim of this competition is giving primary school students a taste of debating without the highly competitive stress of winning.