After a ‘season’ of debating that included 130 schools from around Auckland, the contestants were whittled down to two schools for last night’s Auckland School’s Debating Final held on ‘home turf’ in the College library. With so many schools involved in the earlier rounds, to make it to the finals was a significant achievement. The two schools vying for the championship title were Mission Heights Junior College and Saint Kentigern College.

The moot, given to teams an hour before the debate, was ‘This house believes that the world should go vegetarian.’ Taking the affirmative was Mission Heights, with the Saint Kentigern team on the negative.

The young speakers from both sides were confident in their presentations and discussed a range of issues including animal welfare, sustainability, human rights and ethical farming practices. In a close but clear debate, Saint Kentigern College was deemed the stronger team, taking the cup, and the title of Junior Open Champions for 2013!

Congratulations to the team comprising Nicholas Allen, Alexander McDonald and Joshua Looker for representing the College so well. Joshua also won the title of best speaker in the debate and other team members, Patrick Ye and Kurt Hawkins also received highly commended certificates for their contribution to the team in earlier rounds.

Mission Heights Junior College was represented by Elaina Hea, Rylee Fraser and Laila Hea and they too are to be congratulated for their performance last night.

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