be heard ~ debating & Public speaking
Debating
Debating is one of the exciting and popular co-curricular activities offered at Overnewton. Debating encourages the students to work co-operatively in teams. It develops their public speaking skills and challenges them to think quickly and respond to arguments. The ability to construct and defend an argument, support their opinion with evidence and express themselves with clarity and conviction, is a necessary and vital skill.
Students can be involved in a number of different ways:
- Middle School House Debating
- Senior School House Debating
- Debaters Association of Victoria (DAV) Years 7 - 12
Public Speaking
At Overnewton, students experience public speaking as a process of speaking to a group of people in a structured, deliberate manner intended to inform, influence, or entertain the listeners. Students are taught that the purpose of public speaking can range from simply transmitting information, to motivating people to act, to simply telling a story. Public speaking can be a powerful tool to use for purposes such as motivation, influence, persuasion, informing, translation, or simply entertaining.
Students in the different year levels are able to enter a variety of public speaking competitions. Each has different criteria, with many requiring contestants to perform an impromptu, as well as a prepared speech. Overnewton has enjoyed success in many of these competitions in the past few years. These include:
- VCAA Plain English public speaking
- DAV Junior Public Speaking competition
- United Nations Youth Association (UNYA) Thant Trophy and Conference
- YMCA Youth Parliament
- UN Regional Youth Summit
- ACS Public Speaking
(Last update January 20, 2011)