Registration is NOW OPEN! Click here for more information.

Here's The Deal

  • Local Rounds hosted in schools before Christmas, Regional Finals hosted in schools in the spring
  • Finals Day in the historic Cambridge Union on Feb 27th
  • FREE Workshops and Introductory Debating Guide
  • Over 600 teams and 1200 speakers
  • In-depth feedback and advice from our experienced Judges
  • Interesting and challenging motions
  • Thousands available in Full and partial means-tested bursaries

All for just £40 per team!

Find out more »

Welcome


All Regional Finals complete - Finals Day beckons!


Welcome to the home of the Cambridge Union Schools Debating Competition 2012-13, one of the biggest debating competitions for school children in the world!

Each year over one thousand talented youngsters compete to make it to Cambridge for the tournament finals, and ultimately for the prestigious honour of being named schools' champion. The competition boasts excellent opportunities for young people to get to grips with speaking in public, hone their analytical skills and countless other things, all useful for later life. With University applications and interviews just around the corner for many of those participating, the Cambridge Union Schools Debating Competition is not to be missed. Every year, the best teams from the competition reach finals day.

Finals day is hosted in the historic Cambridge Union building. Built in 1815, the Cambridge Union is the oldest speaking Union in the world, and has a rich history of controversial debates and influential speakers. Speakers who have addressed the Union in the past include: the Dalai Lama, President Ronald Reagan, and Sir Winston Churchill. The tradition of high quality speakers continues to this day, the Union recently hosting Wikileaks founder Julian Assange and notable actors Sir Patrick Stewart and Sir Ian McKellen, to name but a few.

We look forward to welcoming you to Cambridge in February!

 

About

Competition Structure

The competition is divided into three rounds: the Local Rounds, Regional Finals and Finals Day.

The Local Round will be hosted at a School in your area. Teams from around the area will converge on the host school where they will be put into rooms of 4 teams. Debates will be in the standard British Parliamentary format (click here to download our guide on this style of debating). The first motion for the local rounds will be pre-announced, although teams will not know their position. The second debate will have its motion announced 15 minutes before the start of the second debate, and teams can use this time to prepare their speeches. After the second debate the judge (an experienced University debater provided by the Cambridge Union) will select the team from the four he or she feels has been the best over the two debates. This team will proceed to the regional finals. (For an explanation of the criteria used to make the decision, please see the BP debating guide).

The Regional Final will draw from a wider area, and so tends to be a bit further to travel. The format is the same as the local round, with two debates and the best team from four proceeding to the next round. The only difference is that there will be no pre-announced motion for the second round - both motions will be announced 15 minutes prior to the debates.

NB: The local and regional rounds may take a different format in Scotland and Ireland. Please email us for further details.

Teams who win their regional round get the honour of being invited to the Cambridge Union itself to compete on Finals Day. Finals Day features a mere handful of teams compared to the number who originally entered (1/16 entered teams reach finals day), and making it this far is quite an achievement. Finals Day follows a different format to the earlier rounds. There will be four rounds of debating, with points awarded depending on your position in each debate. After the first 4 rounds in which everybody competes, the 8 teams with the most points will proceed to the knockout semi-finals. After these debates, the best 2 teams in each Semi final will advance to the grand final, where one will be crowned Schools Champion!

Hall of Fame

  • 2012 - Dulwich (Sam Collier & Will Cook)
  • 2011 - Westminster School (Barnaby Raine & Indi de Graaf)
  • 2010 - RGS Newcastle (Luke Hughes & Hugo Wallis)
  • 2009 - Cheney School (Alice Stott & Zoe Lake Thomas)
  • 2008 - Aberdeen Grammar School (Natalie Smith & Rachel Watson)
  • 2007 - Haberdashers' Aske's Boys' School (James Fox & Jamie Susskind)
  • 2006 - Dulwich College (Jack Devlin & Tom O'Reilly)
  • 2005 - The Latymer School (Ben Jasper & Tom Evans)
  • 2004 - Aberdeen Grammar School (Rose Grogan & Will Jones)
  • 2003 - High School of Dundee (Gavin Illsley & James Moir)
  • 2002 - Haberdashers' Aske's Boys' School (Adam Berlin & Nicholas Sloboda)

The Cambridge Union Society

Cambridge Schools is run by members of the Cambridge Union Society. The Union dates from 1815, and has a long history of hosting Presidents, Prime Ministers, Statesmen, Celebrities and Sports Stars. The Unions weekly debates serve to engage and to challenge presumptions and prejudices. Finals day will be hosted at the Union itself, with the Grand Final held in the Union's famous chamber.

For more infomation on the Cambridge Union and to see some Cambridge Union speaker events, visit cus.org.

Adjudication

In addition to attracting some of the best teams on the schools debating circuit, Cambridge Schools offers one of the finest judging pools. At its forefront will be:

Chief Adjudicator - Maria English

After a sterling job last year, we have invited Maria to CA again this time. A phenomenal schools debater, she won the World Schools Debating Championship as part of the New Zealand team in 2009. In her first year of University debating she reached the semi-finals of the World University Debating Championship 2011, and won the John Smith Memorial Mace. More recently, she was a semi finalist and the Best Speaker at the European Championships in Belgrade this summer.

Chief Adjudicator - Rebecca Meredith

Also returning from last year's adjudication team is Rebecca Meredith. She represented Scotland at the World Schools Debating Championship in Qatar 2012 and was the 3rd top speaker in Europe at the European Universities Debating Championship 2012. She reached the semi finals of EUDC 2012 and in her first year of university she was 11th best individual speaker on tab at Galway Euros 2011. She has also won the Trinity IV 2011, as well as reaching in the octo-finals of WUDC 2012 and the quarter-finals in 2013. She was the CA of the UCL IV 2012, as well as DCA of the Cambridge IV 2012.

Chief Adjudicator - Ashish Kumar

Ashish is a second-year Law student at Cambridge. He was a finalist at the European Universities Debating Championship 2011, the Oxford IV 2012, the LSE Open 2012, and the Durham Open 2012. Last year he won the President’s Cup, the Warwick IV, and the Nottingham Open. He has fond memories of debating in school, where he represented Singapore at WSDC 2010 and 2011, which the Singaporean team went onto win. Earlier this year he and Rebecca reached the quarter finals of the World Univiersities' Debating Championships.

Deputy Chief Adjudicator - Tahleel Lateef

Tahleel Lateef is the current Debating Officer at the Cambridge Union Society and was the Co-Convenor of the Cambridge Schools Debating Competition 2011-12. He is a prominent debater in Cambridge having represented the debating society on the international level, most recently judging at the Worlds Universities Debating Championship 2012 and the European Debating Championship 2011, where he was selected to judge the semi-final. He has debated at numerous university competitions and was the Deputy Chief Adjudicatory of the UCL IV 2011. During his time at school, he competed for Team Scotland at the World Schools Debating Championship 2010 in Doha, Qatar.

Deputy Chief Adjudicator - Stuart Cribb

Rumoured to be on the adjudication team in order to increase its average age, Stuart Cribb has been debating for far longer than is healthy. A former regional convenor of the Cambridge Schools Debating Competition, Stuart has competed for both Oxford and Cambridge Universities, reaching the finals of numerous competitions as a speaker and a judge. The highlights of his debating career include being the 25th best speaker at Belgrade Euros 2012 and the 13th best speaker at Galway Euros 2011, where he reached the quarter finals with Rebecca. When not debating, he divides his time between training to be a barrister in London and teaching law at Selwyn College, Cambridge.

Org Com

Cambridge Schools is organised by a dedicated team. To email the Convenors, please click here.

Convenor - Matt Hazell

Matt is a third year Veterinary Medicine student at St John's College. He has represented Cambridge on a national and international level. Rollins Cup winner and finalist at the UCL and KCL IVs, he also represented Cambridge at Galway and Belgrade Euros, as well as Berlin WUDC. Also on the Organising Committee for the Cambridge IV and ICYD, this will be his second year convening the Cambridge Schools Debating Competition.

Deputy Convenor (Finance) - Ali Roweth

Ali is a second year Chemical Engineer at Downing College. He has competed in the SOAS and Bristol IVs and was involved in judging the Cambridge Schools Debating Competition last year. He is now in charge of finance for both the IV and the Schools competition and is looking forward to both.

Deputy Convenor (Judging) - Freddy Powell

Freddy is a second year PPS student at Robinson College. He was the winner of the ESU Schools Mace, the Birmingham IV and Presidents Cup, 2011. He also finalled at the Bristol and Manchester IVs, and represented Cambridge at last summer's European Debating Championships. This year he reached the Octo-Finals of the World Championships. He will be in charge of securing judges for the competition.

Workshops

Giving Kids a Chance

The competition features some of the very best in schools debating, all vying for the prestigious title of Cambridge Schools Champion. Year after year many of the same schools enter. However, this year one of our main goals in running the competition is to widen access to schools which haven’t competed before. Last year we increased our access spending to 250% of the previous year's, and this time hope to improve further.

Many schoolchildren haven’t had the chance to experience debating and all of its benefits. In order to give these children a chance we are running numerous workshops around the country aimed at novices who haven’t had the opportunity to try out debating before. These workshops will be free of charge and run by the experienced debaters of the Cambridge Union.

These workshops will consist of an introduction to public speaking, techniques for constructing arguments and an overview of the British Parliamentary style of debating. The ability to speak confidently in public is an invaluable skill that we think all young people would benefit from. Workshops in the past have been very successful at engaging with pupils and teaching them the basic rules of analysis that they can then apply to debating, the classroom and beyond. Particularly with university applications and interviews on the horizon for many pupils, the workshops provide an invaluable experience for students of all backgrounds and abilities. The workshops will be fun and engaging, covering a variety of issues including current affairs and topical news stories.

The workshops will be running regionally:

Bishop Wordsworth's School, Wiltshire - September 22nd
Ashford School, Kent - October 1st
Royal Masonic High School, Hertfordshire - October 9th
Cambridge Union Society, Cambridgeshire - October 15th

Location TBA - Date TBA



Places are limited, and are allocated with preference to schools who have little or no debating experience. If your school wishes to attend a workshop, volunteer to host one, or you just want more information about them, please email us at convenor.cambridgeschools@gmail.com

Registration

 

What you get...

Cambridge Schools is one of the largest and most prestigious schools debating competitions in the world. But, above all, we aim for all those who enter to have a enjoyable and memorable time. Those who compete will receive:

  • Local Rounds hosted in schools before Christmas, Regional Finals hosted in schools in the spring
  • Finals Day in the historic Cambridge Union on Feb 27th
  • FREE Workshops and Introductory Debating Guide
  • Over 600 teams and 1200 speakers
  • In Depth feedback and advice from our experienced Judges
  • Interesting and challenging motions
  • Thousands available in Full and partial means-tested bursaries

All of this is available as part of our basic £40 per team package.



Registration Timetable

Registration will open on Monday September 3rd. Provisionally, Registration will close on September 30th at Midnight. However, if all places are taken (or there are still some left) the closing date may move. It is therefore best to Register as early as possible to avoid disappointment! Teams who register after the competition is full will be put on a waiting list.

Places will be allocated on a first come-first served basis, although if you do not pay in a timely manner your places may be taken away and given to a team on the waiting list. Payment will be either via cheque or by (online) bank transfer. Invoices can be sent out on request.

The price for this year's competition is £40 per team (£10 cheaper than Oxford!) up to a maximum of 4 teams per school.

If you have any questions about the registration system, or about the registration/payment process, please contact us.

Terms and Conditions

Our full Terms and Conditions can be found here.

Register Now!

Main Registration has now closed - to be placed on the waiting list click HERE

Main registration closed on October 12th. Team spots are allocated to teams on the waiting list on a first-paid, first-served basis.