On 16 March, the Southland Boys' High School Debating teams attended the Southland Regional Debating Competition - placing third out of 26 teams.

Southland Boys' High School has a growing reputation of being able to articulate a logical and compelling argument. We have welcomed several new students to the debating club who have never debated and so learning the protocols of debating has been a steep learning curve. Understandably there were some nerves at the start of the day. Standing up and doing 4 or 5 mini speeches every hour is academically taxing and our boys performed exceptionally well.

Debating in Southland has become a popular sport over the last 3 years and this year there were 26 teams in this competition which included teams from: 

Southland Boys' High School, Wakatipu High School, Blue Mountain College, St Peter’s College, Central Southland College, Southland Girls’ High School, Mount Aspiring and James Hargest College, making this the biggest regional debating competition in New Zealand.

This year we proudly fielded 6 teams and one combined team (with our sister school) at the Southland Regional Debating Competition.

The moots were:

• This House regrets: the existence of Valentine’s Day.
• This House believes: University and School Sports scholarships should be abolished.
• This House believes: Private charities should be prioritising global poverty over climate change.
• This House supports: that films should only be made by the Hollywood blockbuster model.  

Results:

The Southland Boys' High School Year 12 team consisting of Michael Crean, Tom Smith and William Paris made it through to the semifinal and achieved third equal with the combined brother sister team of Southland Boys' High School / Southland Girls’ High School (David Walter representing Southland Boys' High School).

Congratulations to William Paris made the Southland Regional team traveling to Wellington for the NZ final in May.

Southland Development Squad:

• Lee Herrick
• Michael Creen
• Rhys Harrison
• David Walter
• Hayden Miller

Southland Boys' High School’s debating is a force to be feared amongst other schools. The boys learnt a lot from the long day of debating and went from strength to strength. We look forward to representing the school in the up-and-coming interschools in term 2. 

As this was the biggest regional competition in New Zealand, placing 3rd out of 26 was a very credible first outing for the year. Well done boys, you should be very proud of your efforts.