Premier's Debating Challenge for Years 5 and 6

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Years 5 and 6

Open to NSW public school students, this age division culminates in a 3-day championship camp that includes workshops with some of the state's most experienced adjudicators.

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Debating is underway in the 2025 Premier's Debating Challenge for Years 5 and 6, with Gorokan Public School and Kanwal Public School completing the first two debates for the year (well done to those very organised schools!) All the teams involved have been emailed their draws for the year and you can check out the shape of the competition and all the results as the come in here.

You can read a little more about the comp below, or you can download the 2025 Premier's Debating Challenge for Years 5 and 6 Information Guide (PDF 4.18 MB) for a really detailed look at how the challenge works (all teams and teachers involved need to be familiar with the rules in the guide). Best of luck for your debates!

Primary debating workshops

To help get teams ready for the challenge, the primary debating workshops program is back for 2025! If you haven’t been before, the days will cover all the things you need to know for primary school debating including rebuttal, arguments, definitions and speakers' roles, as well as a few games and activities and a chance for every single student to deliver a short debating speech and get some feedback. The days are appropriate for Years 5 and 6 kids of all levels from beginner to advanced, and are a great way for both students and teachers to learn more about debating and hear from the people who will be adjudicating the finals of the Premier's Debating Challenge in 2025.

Planning is underway for 2025 and we'll add information as it's confirmed to the table below so that you can see the days that might suit your school. Last year's workshops saw nearly 3,500 primary school students attend a full day of training at one of the 50 events that ran all over NSW. Cheers to all the parents and teachers who helped make those workshops happen by transporting their kids all around the state and a particular thanks to those 50 host schools without whom we couldn't run in-person workshops like these.

Use this link to register for the workshops, or click on the individual regions below to download a flyer with more information. Look forward to seeing everyone there!

Region and information	Dates
North Coast Primary Debating Workshops	Mon 17 to Thu 20 February, Mon 31 March
Riverina Primary Debating Workshops	Monday 24 to Friday 28 February
South Western Sydney Primary Debating Workshops	Monday 3 to Thursday 6 March
Hunter and Central Coast Primary Debating Workshops	Monday 10 March to Thursday 3 April
Illawarra and South East Primary Debating Workshops	Monday 7 to Friday 11 April
Western Sydney Primary Debating Workshops	Monday 5 to Thursday 8 May
Sydney Primary Debating Workshops	Monday 12 to Friday 16 May
Northern Sydney Primary Debating Workshops	Thursday 1 May, Monday 19 to Thursday 22 May
New England Primary Debating Workshops	Monday 26 to Thursday 29 May
Western NSW Primary Debating Workshops	Monday 2 to Wednesday 4 June

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About the competition

The Years 5 and 6 competition is the largest of the age divisions in the Premier's Debating Challenge. It began in 1995 when the Hunter region issued a challenge to the other regions of NSW to send their best primary school team to a championships in Newcastle, which is why to this day the state champion is awarded the Hunter Challenge Trophy.

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Format of the competition

Teams compete in a series of one-hour unassisted preparation debates, meaning that the 4 team members of the team only find out the topic one hour before the debate, and are then given an hour without any assistance to prepare their case. Teams will be organised into zones of six or more. Each team will complete 4 debates against other teams from their zone at times and dates that suit the schools involved. Zone debates will occur from the start of Term 2 until mid-Term 3.

Once those 4 rounds are completed the team(s) with the best record will be declared zone champions and will compete in a regional knockout finals series. Following that, the 10 regional champions will attend a 3-day championships tournament at Stanwell Tops to determine the state champion. The championships will run in mid-November.

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