The Venus Star's debate team meets twice a week after school, drawing students from all three streams, a deliberate choice, since the team's coaches believe the best arguments come from people who think about problems differently.
Unlike most of the school's competitive programmes, the debate team doesn't require trying out with a prepared speech. New members sit in on a session, get assigned a position on a topic they may not agree with, and are expected to argue it anyway. The team's founding principle is that debate teaches you to understand an argument well enough to take it apart, not just to repeat your own opinion louder.
This season's roster includes students from Science, Humanities, and the Technical Track. Mr Deng, who coaches the team alongside his Humanities teaching load, says the mix is intentional: a Science-stream student's instinct to demand evidence pairs well against a Humanities-stream student's instinct to interrogate the framing of a question.
The team competes in both regional and national tournaments through the year; see the team's most recent tournament result below.