2022 has resulted in another highly successful year for QAHS Debating, with 61 students across 13 teams volunteering to participate in the Gold Coast Debating Competition, and 30 of those students were completely new to debating. Eight QAHS teams qualified for the Finals series and five teams progressed as far as the Semi-Finals, with three QAHS teams making it through to the Debating Grand Finals, which took place at Bond University on Wednesday 17 August.
Although our novice Open B Debaters (Tamilla Akimova, Hong Kai Zhang, Benjamin Huang, Michael Teng & Alexander Brown) were narrowly defeated in their Grand Final, the Open A Grand Final between two QAHS Year 11 teams showcased our students' ability to present logical, well-reasoned and developed arguments, and effectively 'think on their feet' to challenge and respond to other perspectives:
QAHS Open A 1: Regina Hoare, Katya Gratchev, Kartik Nayak, Samuel Brown
debated against
QAHS Open A 2: Jessica Ashe, Anenya Kale, Mathilda Bester and Nitika Bethi
QAHS Open A 2 emerged victorious as the 2022 Open A Debating Champions and Jessica Ashe was awarded 'Best Speaker of the Debate for her performance in the Open A Grand Final Debate. As a result of winning the Gold Coast Open A Grand Final, QAHS Open A 2 were invited to compete in the Queensland Debating Union Regional Final against Toowoomba Grammar on Wednesday 24 August, at Somerville House in Brisbane, and in a narrow split decision the debate was awarded to Toowoomba Grammar School with QAHS second speaker Anenya Kale awarded "Speaker of the Debate".
All of our Grand Final Debaters deserve high praise for the commitment and resilience they have shown representing QAHS in Debating this year. Furthermore, as a result of all QAHS Debaters' efforts, the Academy was awarded the prestigious Champion School Award in the Gold Coast Debating Competition for the second year in a row – a stellar achievement that represents the collective success of our students who volunteer to represent QAHS in Debating and commit to a full Debating season.
We congratulate our Grand Final Debaters and Open A Champions, but also all QAHS Debating students, on another outstanding performance in 2022. I have no doubt that Debating at QAHS will continue to thrive in 2023 and look forward to welcoming even more students to our Debating cohort, next year.
Karen Mackie
Teaching Faculty