While most Year 12 students are preparing for their trial exams and feeling pressured by a lack of time, Sebastian Rees (12/PR) is on his way to compete in the National Schools Debating Finals in Victoria.

Seb is one of six squad members chosen from a pool of the state’s top 100 debaters to represent NSW at the National titles. As reigning champions, this year’s NSW team speakers from Sydney Grammar School, SCEGGS Darlinghurst, Sydney Girls High School and Newington College have their eyes set on the big prize and have sacrificed their afternoons and weekends to learn new tactics and brush up on their global affairs and general knowledge.

“We’ve had to debate recently about Crimea and Russia which was something that I didn’t have an opinion about. You have to understand 200 hundred years of Russian history before you can understand Crimea and the factual disputes that are related to it…so I’ve done quite a bit of fast reading”, Seb says.

Earlier this year, Seb was also a member of the History Debating Team led by Mr Marco Scali that took out the Les Gordon History Debating Competition Grand Final for the second year in a row. He says that while he still gets nervous before a debate, the foundations he has formed from debating throughout his high school years have been the key to his success.

“I used to struggle with debating a lot due to factual oversight or not understanding principles. But studying Philosophy and History at school allows you to grow a sound, yet broad knowledge of the world”, he says.

Leading up to becoming a State Representative, Seb participated in trials of two to three debates a day to make it into the squad. Since then, he has practiced for over 12 hours each weekend with his NSW teammates, taking the challenging roll of first speaker for the team and learning to deal with interjection, or points of information from members of the opposing team – a feature of Debating at this very high level.

When asked whether he’s struggled with meeting the demands of his final year at school, he said, “Debating in many ways has made studying easier. It’s helpful for study, particularly in subjects like History and Philosophy where the bulk of the skills are based on arguing a point or evaluating,” he says.

Seb got his big break in Debating when he joined the College’s Firsts team in Year 10. He says it’s been helpful debating at a higher level at a younger age as it has given him time to get over his nerves.

With a modest manner Seb confesses: “I still get very nervous before Debating, but it’s just been an element of working hard as well as good luck and finding that something else, which I can’t really explain, that has helped me to this position”.

We wish Seb all the best in the upcoming months. Congratulations!