Our LJBC Aspire students have been continuing to shine over the past few weeks! We currently have 80 students training for different competitions, including the West Australian Debating League, the Ethics Olympiad, and the Future Problem Solving competition.

Western Australian Schools Debating Competition

It was a pleasure to watch our Year 10 debating team win their second debate against Shenton College in Week 2. The second round of the competition focused on the powers of local governments and our students were able to convince the adjudicator that we should not expand the powers of local government in Australia. They mentioned issues with coordination, bureaucracy, and the negative implications for marginalised groups.

Along with winning the debate, the students were also given incredibly positive feedback from the judges about the quality of their speeches, their ability to give rebuttal on the spot, and the quality of their Points of Information (POIs), which are questions they can ask the other team during their speeches.

Congratulations to Sam, Tayte, Cara, and Abigail! We are all looking forward to the next debate on arts and culture. 

Junior Ethics Olympiad

The Junior School Ethics Olympiad training is well and truly underway and it has been such a pleasure to work with these insightful and articulate young people.

To start out the program, we spent a few weeks focusing on complex and nuanced questions related to unethical leaders and how to walk the fine line of maintaining respect whilst also standing up for what you believe in. Then, we moved on to consider the ethics of lying to protect yourself or someone else and the implications of white lies, lies of omission, and sharing hurtful truths. The students never fail to impress with their mature responses!

I’m thoroughly looking forward to continuing to work with them throughout the rest of the term. 

Ashleigh Cartledge
Years 5-12 Aspire Coordinator