Debating

Welcome to Debating for 2025!

I hope that 2025 will be a year where we see lots of new and old faces in our debating program. Debating is a great activity that helps you to think on your feet, builds your confidence speaking in front of people, and teaches you how to understand and construct arguments. There are various opportunities to debate at SCEGGS: You can be a part of a team in an inter-school competition, just attend training, or participate in our social debating program.

The easiest way to sign-up to debating is by attending the first training session for your year group, outlined below. There will also be an opportunity to sign-up at the co-curricular expo. If you have any questions please email here.

Detailed information with competition dates and times will be in the notes distributed at the first training session. 

Primary

Any Year 6 who is interested in the ISDA Debating Competition must come to trials on Friday 31 January and Friday 7 February, 3.10-5.00 pm. Trials will be held in the OG Building.

IPSHA training for Year 6 will be held at Friday lunchtime, beginning Week 3.

Year 7

For Year 7, there will be an Introduction to High School Debating session on Monday 3 February, 3.10-5.30 pm. This will cover the basics of debating, while also giving all students the chance to participate in a full practice debate. Any Year 7 who is interested in debating should come to this, even if they have done debating in primary school. Following this, we will be running internal debates on Friday 7 February, from 3.10-5.00 pm, which will also be used to help us sort our debaters into competitive teams. Regular training will begin for Year 7 on the Monday of Week 3, and will go from 3.10-5.00 pm.

Years 8 and 9

Training for Years 8 and 9 begins on the first Monday of term, 3 February. Training takes place from 3:10-5:00pm in the OG Building, and will be on each Monday afternoon. These sessions in the first two weeks will inform teams for ISDA and Eastside, so please do your best to attend.

Years 10 – 12

For Years 10-12, we will be holding our first training session of the year on Friday 31 January, from 3.10-5.00 pm. There will be a second session on the Friday of Week 2. After this, training times will be organised with coaches. Both Friday afternoon training sessions will be in the OG Building.

SCEGGS Debating