How school debating works.

How does a school debate run?

Two teams face each other: the Affirmative, which argues for the topic, and the Negative, which argues against it. Each team fields three speakers plus an adviser (the fourth speaker), and the speakers alternate — 1st Affirmative, 1st Negative, 2nd Affirmative, and so on. At Years 5–6 level each speech runs to four minutes. The adviser does not speak in the debate itself, but supports the team through preparation, passes notes between speeches, breaks ties when the team cannot agree — and delivers the thank-you speech if the team wins.

What are the speaker roles in a debate?

Every position has a fixed job list, in order:

How do you structure a debate speech?

Each argument in a speech follows PEEL — Point, Explain, Example, Link — with the Explain done in three moves:

A team then distils its whole case into a case line — one memorable sentence, stated by the first speaker and returned to by everyone. For a four-day school week: “A four-day school week puts student wellbeing first.”

How do you rebut in a debate?

The four-step structure keeps rebuttal organised and repeatable. A rebuttal example on a four-day school week topic: “The other team’s idea was that parents will struggle with childcare on the extra day off. We have two reasons why that’s wrong…”

A denial can attack the what — the other team’s fact is simply untrue — or attack the why — the fact stands, but the reasoning built on it doesn’t hold. And when both teams have made a genuinely fair point, the best speakers stop arguing about who is right and start weighing: explaining why their point matters more, using scale (how many people it affects), vulnerability (who gets hurt worst) and permanence (whether the harm can be undone).

How does the one-hour preparation work?

For unseen topics, teams get one hour in a closed room with no adult help. The official breakdown:

The adviser runs the clock and makes the final call on anything the team cannot resolve in thirty seconds. The brainstorm is silent for a reason: so the loudest student does not drown out a good idea from a quieter one.

How do you judge a debate?

Whether you call it judging or adjudicating, the framework is the same. Adjudicators score every speech across three categories:

Matter

What you say — arguments, reasoning, examples, evidence and rebuttal. Adjudicators reward deep, well-reasoned points over surface-level opinion.

Manner

How you say it — eye contact, voice modulation, body language and natural gesture, and speaking from palm cards rather than reading a sheet.

Method

How you organise it — the structure of each speech, how arguments are split across the team, signposting, and spending time in proportion to an argument’s importance.

A good adjudication answers three questions: whose case was more convincing overall, whose rebuttal actually engaged with the other side, and — the one-sentence decision — why one team won. If you’re judging a school debate competition, make yourself say that sentence aloud before announcing the result. If you can’t, you haven’t decided the debate yet; you’ve only preferred a team.

How do you win a debate?

Win the adjudicator’s three questions. In practice that means four habits. Argue deeply rather than widely — adjudicators reward well-reasoned points over a pile of surface-level ones. Rebut what the other team actually said, because repeating your own case scores nothing. When both sides have a fair point, weigh: explain why yours matters more using scale, vulnerability and permanence. And keep every speech linked to one case line, so the adjudicator can repeat your team’s argument in a single sentence when writing the decision. Debates at school level are usually lost through drift and dropped arguments, and won by the team that stayed organised.

How do you teach debating in primary school?

Short, frequent speaking repetitions beat long lectures on theory — at this age, that principle drives everything. A weekly rhythm works best: open every session with a news round (each student speaks for sixty seconds on a story they found that week, building a shared bank of real examples), teach one skill through drills with everyone on their feet, and give each speaker one specific, technical note instead of general praise. Rotate every student through first, second and third speaker plus adviser before picking teams. After real debates begin, take the adjudicator’s feedback and build the next fortnight of training around it. The Debating Program turns that rhythm into eighteen ready-to-run sessions.

How is a debating year structured?

A well-run school program shapes the whole year: two terms of weekly training — eighteen sessions building from foundations to full unseen-topic debates — then a local competition run as match practice, and finally the main event, such as the Premier’s Debating Challenge. Between competition rounds, training becomes short case-build sprints on fresh topics (there’s a free list of debate topics for primary school to sprint on), and adjudicator feedback after each real debate drives the next fortnight of coaching.