Last year, Miriam Stubbs-Goulston competed in several debates against private boys’ schools. The then-year 10 student at Sydney Girls High could tell her opponents were well-prepared. They were very self-assured. It felt a bit intimidating.
“A lot of the time in these competitions you’re going against schools, private schools specifically, who have had lots of training, and they’re very confident in themselves and that’s something we see especially with the boys’ schools,” the 16-year-old said.
The winning students from Sydney Girls High team, Anhaar Kareem, Miriam Stubbs-Goulston, Sofia Tzarimas, Melissa Liu, and Sofia Malik.Credit: Dion Georgopoulos
Now in year 11, she was part of her school’s team which this month was crowned the winner of the Premier’s Debating Competition for the second year in a row. It is just the 10th time a girls’ high school has won.
The win puts them as the state’s top performers of an extracurricular activity which is surging in popularity, with the number of public school students competing increasing by 27 per cent from 7500 students in 2013 to 9500 this year.
Other major Sydney debating competitions include Eastside, which is open to private and public schools from the eastern suburbs. Sydney Grammar won the Independent Schools Debating Competition earlier this year. The Archdale competition for private girls’ schools is currently under way, as is the Great Public Schools (GPS) competition for boys.
The competitions all have their different quirks, Stubbs-Goulston says. Eastside favours complex debating terminology like “burden-pushing” while the Premier’s Debating favours a clear line of argument. She said across all competitions, a debate is won in the hour-long window of time in the preparation room, not standing at the lectern. It required focused co-operation. She said thanks to expert coaching from former students, the private boys schools’ “aura of confidence” no longer fazed her.
“We have had coaches who have had the opportunity to teach at private schools but have stayed on to coach us,” her teammate Sofia Malik, 17, said.
Australia punches above its weight in the World Debating Championships held every year – The University of Sydney has taken out the title three times over the past decade.
Coaching company Speaking Schools Australasia’s Mark Slaven said some private schools took debating as seriously as rugby, investing thousands of dollars to train students.
“In Sydney, the coaching market is very competitive, so coaches at the top level are paid exceptional amounts of money […] most of them are university students, with many of the top coaches at private schools getting over $100 per hour,” he said.
Debate coaching company Sydney Debating League’s Jade Di Girolamo named Sydney Grammar as the standout team. It has won eight of the past 15 GPS debating competitions. “Most schools would be quite scared of Grammar and accept defeat before they go into the debate. They have been trained very, very well, they’re polished, but it doesn’t mean they’re unbeatable,” she said.
Debating coaching company Speakers Corner co-founder Liam Donohoe said while in decades gone past, speakers were evaluated on the so-called “three Ms” of debating – the 40-40-20 split between matter, method and manner respectively, judges no longer adhered to that.
“What is certain is that university competitions and the vast majority of school competitions have come to the conclusion that matter is the single most important aspect,” he said.
For Melissa Liu, 17, who is part of Sydney Girls’ winning team, she said debating was more than just the techniques used to win a competition, but had changed the way she approached issues.
For Sofia Malik, it had forced her to interrogate a lot of her pre-existing beliefs.
“A lot of the time we will be like ‘yes, freedom of choice is important’, but then we have to actually have to give reasons why it’s important and that tends to be the most difficult part,” she said.
The Morning Edition newsletter is our guide to the day’s most important and interesting stories, analysis and insights. Sign up here.