July 28, 2017
Nanango State High School students have taken out the Senior Final of the local Apex Secondary Schools Debating competition, successfully arguing “that Service Clubs are essential for society to function effectively”.
Their case impressed the three judges, who gave them a close victory over the Kingaroy State High School team who argued that while Service Clubs are beneficial, they are not “essential”.
Chief adjudicator John Box, a lifetime member of Apex Kingaroy, said it had been an “unbelievable” debate.
“My points were exactly the same for both sides,” he said.
Points allocated on the official Apex score sheets by fellow adjudicators Cr Danita Potter and Abigail Andersson decided the winner.
The Apex debating competition began in May with teams from a number of local schools taking part in Junior and Senior rounds.
The final debates were held at St John’s Lutheran School on Tuesday night.
In the Junior final, a Year 8 team from St John’s faced a Year 7 team from St John’s.
The older team was successful in a split decision, successfully arguing against the proposition “that it is justifiable to break the law for a cause”.
Mr Box said there had been great turnout of family and friends for the finals.
He said this year’s competition was the first time that Year 7s and Years 8s had competed, and he was very impressed with the arguments presented.
Nine adjudicators volunteered to judge the debates over the course of the competition.
