They got there by defeating another local team, from The Armidale School, in the competiton's semi-final on October 27.

Competing in the virtual debate, the team consisting of Year 11 students Angus Scrivener, Jean Boshoff, Joel Croft and Year 10 student Roie Wood were the negative side, arguing against the topic 'That publically denying climate change should be illegal'.

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"The debates don't focus on meaningless topics, they are on current issues," Angus said.

"The great thing about debating is that you are forced to argue topics that you may not have otherwise considered or thought about, which brings along new ideas to the table."

Coached by Jenny Roff, the college's Enrichment Leader of Learning, the O'Connor team made it to the final after competing in six debates against Canberra Girls Grammar, Parmamatta Marist Sydney, Scotch College Melbourne, Snowy Mountains Grammar, Trinity Catholic College Lismore, as well as The Armidale School during the competition.

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O'Connor's debtating teams also gained valuable experience locally in other competitons with secondary schools such as the Armidale Secondry College.

Those local debates were also virtual contests held during the lockdown period.

In the final of the AIS competition the O'Connor team will debate against Scotch College Melbourne next Monday afternoon and once the topic is revealed, each team will be given an hour to prepare before the debate starts.

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