Contact

A: 1 - 23 Draper St, Ocean Grove.

E: [email protected]

Ph: 03 5255 1340

Learning – Curriculum

OCEAN GROVE PRIMARY SCHOOL

Debating

Our debating program and team are something we are very proud of. A great deal of time and effort go into ensuring our students are well prepared for their debates. The skills they develop in confidence and articulately communicating a message are ones that will serve them well in the future. 

Here is an example debate speech from Ella Armstrong who won Best Speaker.

Too much money, too many pence – is it really worth the expense?

REBUT our team vigorously disagrees with the statement made by the negative team that ……because ………
 
As you know it is estimated that London will be paying a whopping 11 billion dollars to host the 2012 Olympics, do you realise that most cities end up in debt well after the Olympic Games are over? At the Olympics one single swimming pool cost an enormous 500,000 thousand dollars: remember that is just a pool.

Many different sports are played and if a pool cost that much can you imagine how much money it will cost to host the Olympics?

What do you think happens to all the equipment after it has been used? You will be surprised to hear that it is barely used and the tax payers will end up paying the bill.

Montreal held the summer Olympic Games in 1976 and is still paying the 2.7 billion debt off now. In 2004 Athens went billions of euros over their budget, where do you think the money comes from?

Look at Greece now in one of the most financially difficult situations in the world. Do you think the Olympics benefited them financially, I think not!

How can you say that this is value for money? Take Montreal’s Olympic stadium the Big Owe, it was finally paid off in 1999, thirty years later. And you say not a waste of money.
All of this plus the cost of training athletes and sending them overseas. This could all be done without the tremendous cost. Keep it simple. Do we really need to provide huge amounts for individuals to have 15 minutes in the limelight?
Do we need special training facilities? What did Australia do before we had the AIS? We still won medals we still participated and we did this all without this expensive facility for a privileged few.

What about the loss of productivity during the 17 days of the Olympics, yes 17 days. 11bn for 17 days, nearly 1 billion a day, and you say no it’s not a waste. What a load of rubbish!
How can these figures be said to be okay. Schools shut, holidays for everyone, what is the real cost? One holiday costs 2.3 billion to the economy and they are having 17 in a row.
No matter what your level of enjoyment of the Olympics it is not even an argument, no room for doubt, too much money is WASTED on these 17 days provided for only a few.

Ocean Grove Primary School Acknowledges the Wadawurrung People as the Traditional Owners of the Land, Waterways and Skies. We pay our respects to their Elders, past, present and emerging. We Acknowledge all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people who are part of our community today.