St Paul's Anglican Grammar School's D grade debating team won this year's Division D online competition against some strong competition.
Year nine students Liv Comben, Thomas Prestidge and William Blackwood achieved the win by defeating St Aloysius College in the final round by two points.
The students competed in DAV Debating's Berwick region that included 16 schools from across Gippsland and the south-eastern suburbs of Melbourne before moving to the finals.
Some of the topics students were presented with included: abolishing monarchies, Australian made content on the ABC, the employment of state artists, the Australian citizenship test and sponsorship from gambling companies.
St Paul's debating co-ordinator Bernard Laverty praised the students for their great teamwork throughout the competition. "Each of the students committed whole-heartedly throughout the competition and were duly rewarded," he said. "The D Grade team's victory is quite a monumental achievement in the history of the school with our last victory taking place all the way back in 2001," he said.
The win follows on from three St Pauls Anglican Grammar students receiving "Swannie" awards for their achievements at the Debaters Association of Victoria's (DAV) debating competition.
Year 11 students Ava Carruthers and Sharni Boote both received Swannie awards as joint winners for the B grade competition and year nine student William Blackwood also received a Swannie award for having the highest average score for the C Grade competition.
Mr Laverty said he could not be more proud of the Swannie award winners for this year.
"It's a testament to the students' consistent work ethic, determination to succeed and effortless adaption to the online format."
Swannie awards are named after Alan Swanwick, a long-time DAV member and a pioneer of debating in Victoria. Awards are presented to the speaker in each region and grade who has the highest average speaker score after participating in at least three debates during the year.