Premier's Debating Challenge for Years 7 and 8
Open to NSW government school students, the competition culminates in a three-day championship camp that includes workshops with some of the state's most experienced adjudicators.
Latest news
Entries in the 2025 Premier's Debating Challenge for Years 7 and 8 are now open! Teachers can use the red button at the top of this page to register up to two teams. You can read a little more about the comp below, or you can download the 2025 Premier's Debating Challenge for Years 7 and 8 Information Guide (PDF 2.41 MB) for a really detailed look at how the challenge works. Best of luck for a big year of debating!
About the competition
The Years 7 and 8 age division was introduced in 1998 so that for the first time students could debate in a state-wide competition all the way from Year 5 up to Year 12. Today, debating topics cover a wide range of contemporary issues relevant to junior secondary students. Every debate in the challenge is a one hour preparation debate, so that teams do not know the topic or which side of the debate they are on until one hour before the debate starts. The state champion team will be awarded The Lloyd Cameron Cup which is named in honour of the longest-serving Speaking Competitions Officer.
Format of the competition
Teams will be organised into zones of six (occasionally fewer depending on entries) and will receive their draw before the start of Term 2. Each team will complete 3 debates against other teams from their zone whenever suits them before mid-Term 3. Once those 3 rounds are completed the team(s) with the best record will be declared the zone champions.
Zone champions move on to a regional knockout finals series following which the 10 regional champion teams attend a 3-day championships tournament in Sydney. The championships camp will run in December and includes workshops with some of the state's most experienced adjudicators.