Public Speaking and Debating at St Patrick’s College 

In any well-rounded education, public speaking and debating form an important element in the developing the whole person.

In recent years St Patrick’s has enjoyed a great deal of success in this area including championship teams at Royal South Street, as well as individuals proceeding to state and national finals.

We offer two comprehensive areas; public speaking as well as debating. Many students take up both as they strive to further themselves.

St Patrick’s College has the largest public speaking and debating program of any school in Ballarat, so if you are considering where to send your son, we would encourage you to look at the strengths this program offers as well as the success we have enjoyed not only recently, but over many years.

Please read through our information below to further familiarise yourself with what we offer.

Public Speaking
The ability to speak well publicly opens many doors. St Patrick’s prides itself on its highly successful public speaking program.

Public speaking can factor into many areas beyond the compulsory English speech that many dread. The young men who undertake public speaking at St Patrick’s College learn to do so with distinction.

This puts our young men at an advantage in many areas of life including areas such as career development.

We compete in several competitions including Rostrum’s Voice of Youth, Royal South Street, UN’s Voice, Legacy’s Junior Public Speaking Competition, and the Lions Youth of the Year Competition to name a few.

Debating

The process of debating offers profound and lasting benefits for individuals, for societies and the global community as a whole.

Debating has a large emphasis on critical thinking, effective communication, independent research and teamwork. These benefits can only serve to enhance a young men’s academic performance.

Our gentlemen compete in the Debating Association of Victoria’s Competition as well as Royal South Street.

The young men also take up the opportunity to compete in the United Nations Youth programs such as EVATT; a model UN council forum.