Four students from St Joseph's Convent of Mercy in Navan, Co Meath, are the winners of this year's GDI German Debating Competition.
Prepared by their teacher, Barbara Hegarty, the four students - captain Clare Gaynor, Nicola Dowling, Lorna Colley and Susan O'Malley - successfully debated the motion that "young people can look to the future with optimism".
Their opponents were students of the Presentation Secondary School in Tralee, Co Kerry - Mary Joyce, Carmel O Sullivan, captain Marguerite Baily, and Clodagh Lynch - who were tutored by their teacher Caitriona Dowling. This is the third year of the competition, which gives second-level students a chance to speak German beyond the confines of the classroom. This year 44 schools got involved.
The final took place in the Goethe Institute in Merrion Square, Dublin, last Thursday.
Organised by the German Teachers' Association of Ireland (Gesellschaft Der Deutschlehrer Irlands, or GDI), the competition encourages the participation of pupils with varying linguistic abilities. Teamwork and enjoyment are seen as being of key importance, according to Margaret Brady, a teacher at St Paul's College, Raheny, Dublin, who is one of the competition's organisers. The two other organisers are Fionnuala Ui Cholmain, of Colaiste Eoin, Stillorgan, Co Dublin, and Elke Hughes of the Department of Education and Science.
This year the competition was awarded the "European Label for Innovative Projects in Language Teaching and Learning".
Teachers who want their schools to be represented in the competition next year can contact GDI, 62 Fitzwilliam Square, Dublin 2, for details and entry forms in the autumn.
