Congratulations to our English Debate Team!
YWPS Debate Team wins big at the Primary Schools Debating Tournament 2016.
Congratulations to our English Debating Team for winning the coveted championship at the Primary Schools Debating Tournament 2016 which was organized at St Joseph’s Primary School this morning. This time, our team sent out three members who are Jason Chan, Isaac Lee (6B) and Isaac Yan (6E) to take part in this highly competitive tournament and they made history by winning a stunning victory after defeating three elite schools in a row, and finally took home with the glorious trophy for the first time ever.
The factor which makes the tournament hypercompetitive is the impressive list of elite schools joining which include La Salle, Diocesan Girls’, Heep Yunn, Marymount, St. Joseph’s, St. Stephen’s, St. Paul’s Convent, Wah Yan and Raimondi Primary School. These schools has made a name for themselves in debating due to their long experience in joining public competitions, in comparison with Ying Wa’s only two-year-old English debating team. Therefore, we joined the competition with a heart fond of learning and gaining experience but the results are definitely a pleasant surprise for all of us.
We competed against the Raimondi Primary School in the first round and the motion was that “Single-sex primary schools are better than mixed-sex primary schools.” We were on the affirmative side and having studied in a single-sex school for six years, our team members had no difficulty in defending their arguments in favour of the motion, and we won an impressive 265 – 200 and got through to the next round.
We were against La Salle Primary School at the semi-final and pressure was huge on our boys. The motion was that “Social media does more harm than good” and we were on the affirmative side. We lost a bit of luck here since we got a slightly weaker stance to defend and not surprisingly, La Salle did a very good job in their presentations and they are no doubt experienced debaters. However, our boys did not back down and get timid by the opposing team’s fierceness. Instead, our boys demonstrated their wonderful skills in making rebuttals on the spot and made some really strong counter arguments which the opponent could not rebut nicely. At the end, the match was a really close-call but our team managed to secure another win with a 270 – 254.
Since there were three winning teams at the semi-finals, which were Ying Wa, Wan Yan and Diocesan Girls but only two teams could get to the final, all our members and the audience were very anxious waiting for the results to see which two schools got the highest point differential scores. Everyone was so excited when the results were announced since Ying Wa made it to the final match and would compete against Diocesan Girls’. Beyond any doubt that would be a tough match and the fact that our boys had to be on the negative side for the motion “Single-sex primary schools are better than mixed-sex primary schools” made the competition really interesting. The DG girls were undoubtedly the strongest competitors whom our team had ever faced and they demonstrated excellence in presentations, making rebuttals and organization. However, our boys wowed the audience with their confidence, strong presence, tactful rebuttals and humour in their speech! The matches were really intense and all the audience was stunned by the amazing performance of both teams. After a long and careful deliberation, the judges announced the results and Ying Wa’s team won the overall championship while Jason Chan (6B) was named “Best Debater” in the final match.
This is the perfect ending for our English Debating Team this year but it is definitely not the end of the debating journey for our members. The biggest wish I have as your coach is that the whole experience has inspired each one of you to pursue debating in secondary schools or even universities and you will never stop being critical. You have all proven yourself to be amazing debaters and I sincerely hope that you can keep up the passion!
I would also like to express my deepest gratitude to Mr. Thomas Ching, Mrs. Rebecca Ho, Ms Candy Ho for coming to watch the matches, help with the logistics and show your valuable support to our boys. I would also like to thank the parents and students who have come today and I hope all of you have enjoyed the competitions. Boys from P.4 & P.5, if you are interested in debating and if you think you have what it takes, do consider joining the debate team next year! It will be tough, demanding and exhausting but I guarantee, that “it will do more good than harm”!
Mr. Dennis Tam
Coach of Debate Team
p.s. See the excitement at the moment of prize presentation captured by video below! Go to our video section to watch more clips of the final!
The factor which makes the tournament hypercompetitive is the impressive list of elite schools joining which include La Salle, Diocesan Girls’, Heep Yunn, Marymount, St. Joseph’s, St. Stephen’s, St. Paul’s Convent, Wah Yan and Raimondi Primary School. These schools has made a name for themselves in debating due to their long experience in joining public competitions, in comparison with Ying Wa’s only two-year-old English debating team. Therefore, we joined the competition with a heart fond of learning and gaining experience but the results are definitely a pleasant surprise for all of us.
We competed against the Raimondi Primary School in the first round and the motion was that “Single-sex primary schools are better than mixed-sex primary schools.” We were on the affirmative side and having studied in a single-sex school for six years, our team members had no difficulty in defending their arguments in favour of the motion, and we won an impressive 265 – 200 and got through to the next round.
We were against La Salle Primary School at the semi-final and pressure was huge on our boys. The motion was that “Social media does more harm than good” and we were on the affirmative side. We lost a bit of luck here since we got a slightly weaker stance to defend and not surprisingly, La Salle did a very good job in their presentations and they are no doubt experienced debaters. However, our boys did not back down and get timid by the opposing team’s fierceness. Instead, our boys demonstrated their wonderful skills in making rebuttals on the spot and made some really strong counter arguments which the opponent could not rebut nicely. At the end, the match was a really close-call but our team managed to secure another win with a 270 – 254.
Since there were three winning teams at the semi-finals, which were Ying Wa, Wan Yan and Diocesan Girls but only two teams could get to the final, all our members and the audience were very anxious waiting for the results to see which two schools got the highest point differential scores. Everyone was so excited when the results were announced since Ying Wa made it to the final match and would compete against Diocesan Girls’. Beyond any doubt that would be a tough match and the fact that our boys had to be on the negative side for the motion “Single-sex primary schools are better than mixed-sex primary schools” made the competition really interesting. The DG girls were undoubtedly the strongest competitors whom our team had ever faced and they demonstrated excellence in presentations, making rebuttals and organization. However, our boys wowed the audience with their confidence, strong presence, tactful rebuttals and humour in their speech! The matches were really intense and all the audience was stunned by the amazing performance of both teams. After a long and careful deliberation, the judges announced the results and Ying Wa’s team won the overall championship while Jason Chan (6B) was named “Best Debater” in the final match.
This is the perfect ending for our English Debating Team this year but it is definitely not the end of the debating journey for our members. The biggest wish I have as your coach is that the whole experience has inspired each one of you to pursue debating in secondary schools or even universities and you will never stop being critical. You have all proven yourself to be amazing debaters and I sincerely hope that you can keep up the passion!
I would also like to express my deepest gratitude to Mr. Thomas Ching, Mrs. Rebecca Ho, Ms Candy Ho for coming to watch the matches, help with the logistics and show your valuable support to our boys. I would also like to thank the parents and students who have come today and I hope all of you have enjoyed the competitions. Boys from P.4 & P.5, if you are interested in debating and if you think you have what it takes, do consider joining the debate team next year! It will be tough, demanding and exhausting but I guarantee, that “it will do more good than harm”!
Mr. Dennis Tam
Coach of Debate Team
p.s. See the excitement at the moment of prize presentation captured by video below! Go to our video section to watch more clips of the final!
