English Literary Drama and Debate Society

Teachers in Charge:

Mrs Mona Seah, Ms Ratnawati Rawi, Ms Hanna Maryam, Ms Rachna Arora and Ms Koh Siang Cheng

Organisational Structure:

President: Dikshaa Ramineni 3 Commitment

Deputy President: Lea Sanchez Chan 3 Commitment

Head of Debate Division: Samuel Soo En How 3 Integrity

Head of Drama Division: Sofia Iman Connor 3 Respect

Head of E-Journalism Division: Goh Jun An Jarren 3 Respect

Head of Welfare: Joey Kuan Yee Xun 3 Respect

Deputy Head of Welfare: Zarifah Binte Zaidi 3 Thinking

VISION OF ELDDS
Confident and eloquent communicators that strive towards literary and cultural excellence.

ELDDS

The English Literary Drama and Debate Society (ELDDS) is one of the most colourful and dynamic co-curricular activities in the school. Armed with the vision to develop young students in becoming confident, poised and eloquent communicators that enjoy, appreciate and strive towards literary and cultural excellence, students undergo an extensive programme curated for three robust divisions; the Drama, Debate and E-journalism Divisions. Each of these divisions serves to allow students to nurture and exercise their creative, intellectual and oratorical capacities.

Our key annual inter-divisional event is the EVG Debate Invitationals (EVGDI), which sees invited schools from all over Singapore pitting their debating skills against each other. The objectives of EVGDI are:

To provide novice debaters with the opportunity to:

Represent their schools at the inter-school level.
Debate thought-provoking motions, thereby honing their debating skills.

To provide participating schools with a platform for interaction and friendly debate opportunities.

EVGDI 2019 saw an unprecedented number of 12 teams debating over 2 weekends, on 27 July and 3 August. At the Grand Finals, the Overall Champion was Pasir Ris Crest Secondary School. Evergreen Team B also achieved the First Runner-Up award, while the Best Speaker award at the Semi-Finals (Impromptu Round) went to John Poon.

Debate

Since its inception, the Debate Division has been active in fostering a dynamic debating culture in school. It aims to improve debaters’ general knowledge and sharpen their critical thinking skills. As such, opportunities for its members to represent the school in inter-school debating and oratorical competitions are numerous.

2021 Achievements

On 14 August, a team of Sec 1s and 2s participated at the Hua Yi Debate Invitational. It was their first open debate tournament. It was a daunting experience and the students pitted their skills against schools beyond our school cluster. The team has truly done us proud as they emerged as the Quarter-Finalists, among 40 other debate teams.

The young team of debaters are as follows:

HUMARANG SABRINA GABRIELLE SORTIJAS (1 CHR)
JOEY OH JO EE (1 ITG)
GRACELYN ONG XIN LING (1THK)
AUNI TAN BINTE ZAKI TAN ABDULLAH, the Debate Captain (2CMT)
SAHU SHREYA (2THK)

Clockwise: Gracelyn 1Thinking, Auni 2 Commitment, Shreya 2 Thinking, Sabrina 1 Character and Joey 1 Integrity

2020 Achievments

Marsya 3 RSP, Bernard 3 ITG, Mrs Seah, Debate Teacher-in-charge, Cayden 2 CMT, Lea 2 ETP, Musfirah 3 THK, Joey 2 CMT, Sonia 3 ITG and Samuel 2 CMT during one of the training sessions.

During the unprecedented times in July, two debate teams took on the challenge to participate in the Debate Association Debate Championships (DADC) 2020 which was held online. As a result, all the trainings were a different ball game as face-to-face interactions took a back seat.

It was a true test of the debaters’ grit. However, they rose to the occasion and beat 7 other teams to emerge as Champions of the Silver division. Kudos to these two teams of fighters.

Evergreen Team B emerged as Champions at the Silver Division of DADC 2020 Team B comprised of Bernard 3ITG, Marsya 3 RSP, Musfirah 3 THK and Lea 2 ETP

The Division 3 Debating Championships held in January 2020 was a test of the debaters’ grit and teamwork as they had to participate in three rounds of debate in a day. The debaters would testify that it was a truly enriching experience and a valuable opportunity for dynamic teamwork.

Bernard and Marsya achieved the Best Speaker Award at Rounds 2 and 3 respectively.

Debaters: John Poon 4DYN, Celeste Lai 4 CMT, Sonia Ong 3 ITG, Marsya Faied 3 RSP & Bernard Lau 3 ITG (from left to right)

2019 Achievements

Our debaters took part in the Singapore Secondary Schools Debating Championships (Division III) 2019 and two debate speakers were ranked on the Top 20 Best Speakers among 32 schools. They have done us proud!

The debaters who achieved Best Speakers were as follows:

Nur Kaisah Bte Abdul Kadir, ranked 2nd Best
Tracy Goh, ranked 6th Best

Drama

The Drama Division aims to inculcate in our students a deep love for the dramatic arts through creative, witty, and impactful performances. We train our students to be comfortable in a variety of public speaking and public performance engagements. Drama members participate in a wide spectrum of school-based performances such as our Chinese New Year Celebrations and National Day Celebrations. Our members also participate in the prestigious Odyssey of the Mind (Singapore), an annual creative problem-solving competition at Anglo Chinese School (Independent) where our members go up against schools like School Of The Arts and Raffles Girls Secondary School. Through these activities, members learn and sharpen their dramatic skills as well as deepen their creative processes – skills which are essential for their future aspirations in the 21st century.

E-Journalism

2020 Achievements

Live On Essay Writing Competition by National Organ Transplant Unit, Ministry of Health Singapore

This competition is organised by the National Organ Transplant Unit (NOTU) of the Ministry of Health, Singapore, to raise awareness of the importance of organ donation. The first place winner, Ching Yu Eng of 2 Dynamic has demonstrated empathy and awareness of the audience in her essay. Her persuasive essay coupled with her touch of humanity and philosophy clearly shows that the e-journalism training equips our writers with the skills to be a sharp, discerning writer with a heart.

Read her winning essay here! https://www.liveon.gov.sg/showcase.html?Institution=EvergreenSecondarySchool.

2019 Achievements

A writing workshop was conducted for all EVG Vibes and Secondary 1 ELDDS members by Ms Nabilah Said—an editor, playwright, copywriter and former journalist at The Straits Times. Students learnt about life in the newsroom as a journalist and also had a hand in brainstorming and crafting their own stories for the EVG Vibes newsletter. The workshop ended with the class working together and critiquing each other’s articles.

Our students also took part in Youth Empowered, a nationwide competition that provides students with a platform to increase their awareness about digital literacy and effective communication skills for social media campaigns.

2018 Achievements

EVG Vibes won the Most Avid Team Award at The Media Challenge 2018, organised by Republic Polytechnic. The award recognises the great display of teamwork and enthusiasm shown by our students in putting together a news package for a social cause.

The team consisted of (from left to right):
Darius Peh 4 ITG
Charlene Long 4 ETP (Class of 2019)
Ng Qi Ting 4 ITG (Class of 2019)
Jolene Chew 4 RSP