St Joseph’s Catholic College runs an extensive extracurricular program to enrich and diversify the education of our students.
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Public Speaking and Debating
St Joseph’s has had an outstanding record of debating success in both the Josie Mitchell Debating Competition, which is run annually between all the Catholic and Independent Schools on the central coast and the Newcastle University Debating Competition which also occurs annually and involves all the schools on the central coast.
In the Josie Mitchell Debating Competition St Joseph’s Catholic College has achieved first place on a number of occasions and has also been recognised as a finalist in the competition regularly.
In addition, the Newcastle University Debating Competition, provides a unique opportunity for students to compete against other schools on the central coast and be given professional guidance and advice by recognised adjudicators.
Students from Years 7 – 12 have the opportunity to participate in the Inter-School Public Speaking Competition. Students from the college have a proud and successful tradition in this competition.
Debating and public speaking encourage students to develop the following:
- Confidence to speak in front of a room full of people
- Ability to present an argument persuasively
- Vision to understand that there are two sides to most arguments
- Respect for others, to let them have their say
- Sense of timing, to prioritise material and speak in a given time period
- Structure to order thoughts, to introduce, develop and summarise points
- General specific knowledge of many current affairs topics, learnt through research and debate
