On Friday, 23 May, four members of out Senior Debating Squad faced off against Knox Grammar school for a shot at the Senior A title for the FED Cup.

While almost all members of the Senior Squad had participated in the debates that saw our team through to the final, the boys speaking on the night were Michael Gribble (12/PR), Ben Adams (12/FL), Sam Wallace (12/MO) and Sean Hatten (12/ME) as 4th speaker. Hosted by Trinity Grammar School the crowd was largely made up of Newington supporters. The topic for the night was “That all university students who receive government funding should have to complete compulsory national service”.

The Newington Senior A team argued against the motion, and won the debate on all points in a unanimous decision from the three adjudicators. We are very proud to congratulate them, and all other teams who debated in the FED competition on an excellent season and pleasing end result.

With four out of six year groups making it to the semi-finals, we hope that this is a good predictor for the upcoming GPS Debating season. In further news, the NSW State Debating Team won the National Debating Championships over the weekend. We congratulate Sebastian Rees (12/PR) on his participation in, and contribution to this team. We also look forward to seeing him step into his new role of Captain of Debating for the GPS Season.

Congratulations to all.

Ms Kate Shepard
Head of Debating and Public Speaking