Junior State Debating Championships

Year 9 and 10

The Junior State Debating Championships involve representative regional teams. Teams engage in a series of debates and workshops with experienced adjudicators, before the winning regional team is awarded the Neil Gunther Shield.

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2024 JSDC Debaters
The 45 students chosen to represent their regions at the 2024 Junior State Debating Championships (and a few of their coaches!)

What is the Junior State Debating Championships?

In our debating competitions we split NSW up into ten different regions. In Term 3 each region runs debating trials to pick a squad of their very best Years 9 and 10 debaters. That squad goes on to represent the region against the other nine regions at a championships debating camp which will run from Monday 8 to Wednesday 10 December at the Women's College of the University of Sydney. There's a fee for students who are selected to represent their region, though there's also some assistance available to speakers to help with travel costs. You can see more detailed information on how the championships run by downloading the 2025 Junior State Debating Championships Information Guide (PDF 394.54 KB).

What are the rules of the championships?

  • Competitors must be from Year 9 or Year 10 and attending a NSW government school. Generally only one student may be selected per school and they may compete at state level only once (the Speaking Competitions Officer can grant exceptions where it benefits the championships).
  • The regional representative squad can consist of up to five members.
  • Debates will run following the standard rules of the Premier's Debating Challenge, including a one-hour unassisted preparation time and an 8-minute speaking time.
  • Each team will debate five times in the round-robin section of the championships.
  • The teams will be placed into 2 pools of 5, and will debate the other 4 teams in their pool plus one matched team from the other pool. The 2 highest-ranked teams from each pool will proceed to the semi-finals, where the winner of one pool will meet the runner-up from the other pool.
  • In the event that teams draw for semi-final spots, tiebreakers will be applied in the following order: head-to-head, strength of win, strength of schedule, adjudicator ranking. If more than 2 teams are drawn, the tiebreakers are applied in order until one team is eliminated and the process is restarted.
  • The winners of the semi-finals will proceed to the state final. All teams are expected to attend the state final.

How do I find out about the trials in my region?

We'll add the dates and venues of the various trials below as they're organised along with the contact information for the regional coordinator in charge. We'll also email all the schools and teachers in the Premier's Debating Challenge once the trials are organised so you won't miss out.

Region Trials information
Hunter/Central Coast
Email: [email protected]
Friday 19 September 2025
@ Gosford High School
Illawarra and South East
Email: [email protected]
Thursday 18 September 2025
@ Illawarra Sports High School
New England
Email: [email protected]
TBA
North Coast
Email: [email protected]
Friday 12 September 2025
@ Toormina High School
Northern Sydney
Email: [email protected]
TBA
Riverina
Email: [email protected]
Thursday 11 September 2025
Online trials
South Western Sydney
Email: [email protected]
Friday 19 September 2025
@ Sarah Redfern High School
Sydney
Email: [email protected]
TBA
Western NSW
Email: [email protected]
Wednesday 24 September 2025
Online trials
Western Sydney
Email: [email protected]
Wednesday 27 August 2025
@ Pendle Hill High School

Enquiries

The debating team
The Arts Unit

All Arts Unit programs are inclusive. If support is required to participate in the Junior State Debating Championships, please email [email protected] so that we can assist.