Pascoe Vale Girls College promotes public speaking through a variety of programs.
One of these is the Debating Association of Victoria Schools Debating Competition. Teams can be entered at 4 different grades with Year 12 students being in A Grade, Year 11s in B Grade, Year 10s in C Grade and Year 9s in D Grade. Pascoe Vale regularly enters Year 8 teams into the D Grade competition.
The season is made up of 5 debates and finals. The debates take place in the evening at Mercy College in Coburg. Students speak in front of an audience made up of their own team, the opposition team, an adjudicator and a number of parents, other family members and friends.
The teams are drawn to speak in favour of a topic or against it and D Grade students are expected to speak for between 4 and 5 minutes. A Grade students need to be able to speak for between 6 and 8 minutes.
Debating involves some extra work in order to be prepared but it provides students with an excellent opportunity to develop their public speaking skills as well as their personal confidence. It also aids students in being able to prepare an argument which is a core part of the English 7-10 curriculum.