CDS qualifies three debaters for Worlds

April 10, 2019 · 0 Comments

For the 12th consecutive year, The Country Day School has qualified a debater for the World Championships, held this year from April 11-17 at Branksome Hall in Toronto. There will be 14 students representing Canada, and for the first time three students will be from CDS.
Maeve Tebbutt, 19 (from Midhurst), was the first to qualify last fall at the International Independent Schools’ Public Speaking Competition (IISPSC). She finished 3rd, thereby winning a coveted spot at the 31st World Individual Debating and Public Speaking Championships. This will be her third year competing at this level.
The three-person CDS Debating team, consisting of Maeve, Anaïs Leiva von Bovet, 19 (from Richmond Hill), and Anna Croxon, 20 (from Aurora), finished first overall – the best ever showing by a CDS team at the IISPSC. In total, 167 students representing 47 teams from 7 countries participated.
Anaïs was the top speaker for the second year in a row, making it the 6th consecutive year for a CDS speaker to hold this honour. Although Anaïs could not qualify from the IISPSC tournament again, as she qualified last year, she moved on to compete at the National Public speaking Championships in Winnipeg held in February for another chance to qualify for Worlds. Following very closely behind Maeve, Anna finished 4th overall at the IISPSC and like Anaïs qualified to compete at Nationals.
At the Nationals, Anna finished 3rd overall, qualifying to compete in Worlds. Anais also excelled, securing a spot at Worlds for her second year. Students from independent schools in 16 countries will converge to compete within a global community in three out of four events: Impromptu Speaking, Parliamentary Debate, Interpretive Reading and either After Dinner or Persuasive Speaking.
“We are immensely proud of what all three girls were able to accomplish again this year at the IISPSC and Nationals,” said longtime debating coach Kerstin Wyndham-West. “We wish them well at the World Championships representing CDS on the world stage.”