Kiwiblog

The Russell McVeagh New Zealand Schools’ Debating Team has won the World Schools’ Debating Championships after defeating England in the Grand Final, in Athens.

The Kiwis beat England by a 6-1 margin, proposing the motion “That all illegal immigrants should receive amnesty”.

New Zealand were runners-up at the 2008 Championships, losing on a 4-5 decision to England, so this is great utu!

It is the first time since 1995 that New Zealand has won the Championships, and the fourth time since 1988, making New Zealand the second most successful country ever to compete in the tournament.

The team comprised Maria English (Captain, Samuel Marsden Collegiate), Holly Jenkins (Sacred Heart College), Jennifer Savage (Wanganui Collegiate), Tom Chen (Hillcrest High School) and Ben Kornfeld (King’s College).

Maria English was also ranked as the world’s second best student debater – a great achievement as she has only just finished Year 12/6th form.

Congratulations to Jennifer (Jen) Savage from Wanganui Collegiate who won best overall speaker at the NZ Secondary Schools World Debating Champs.

Fellow New Zealanders Ben Kornfeld was 2nd and Holly Jenkins 4th.

As reported yesterday the team got all the way to the grand final and lost with the closest possible margin of 4-5.  The team captain is Maria English, and Stephen Franks points out (Stephen is on the board of Samuel Marsden – Maria’s school) that Maria has also a member of the N.Z. Secondary Schools Choir and was the winner of the 2008 Rodney Walshe Essay Competiton – the Ireland essay competition.

The New Zealand Secondary Schools Debating Team (supported by Russell McVeagh) have just won the world champs semi-final against Scotland and are through to the final.

This is the first time since 1995, NZ has made it through to the grand final. 39 teams have been competing from all over the world.

The team is:

1. Maria English (Captain, Samuel Marsden)
2. Holly Jenkins (Sacred Heart)
3. Jennifer Savage (Wanganui Collegiate)
4. Tom Chen (Hillcrest High)
5. Ben Kornfield (King’s College)

Their topics to date have been:

1. This house supports military intervention to deliver emergency aid in humanitarian crises’ – beat Greece 2-1 opposing
2. This House would ban strikes by workers in essential state services – beat Estonia 3-0 proposing
3. This house would ban the use of unethically obtained data in scientific research – beat Bangladesh 3-0 proposing
4. This House would make humanities subjects compulsory at undergraduate level – beat Japan 3-0 opposing
5. This house would make the directors of multinational companies personally liable for environmental abuses committed by their companies in the developing world – beat Scotland 3-0
6. A debates I don’t know topic for won 3-0 against Singapore
   
7. This house believes that governments have a duty to bail out failing financial institutions – beat Slovakia 3-0
8. A debates I don’t know topic for won 3-0 against Indonesia
9. This House believes that heads of government should be required to have a parliamentary majority to govern – - beat Netherlands 5-0 (octo-final)
   
10. This House regrets the holding of the 2008 Beijing Olympics – beat Ireland 4-1 (quarter-final)
    
11. This house would drop all US sanctions on Cuba – beat Scotland 7-0 proposing (semi-final)
    

The final motion is:

This House would expand the permanent membership of the UN Security Council

NZ goes up agains England in the final. It is being held at the Reagan Centre in Washington DC and will commence at 6.30 am NZST on Monday.

Winning 11 debates in a row is an incredible result. Best of luck to all of the team and support crew for the final.