Registration Details

The International Competition for Young Debaters is an annual competition for debaters under the 15 years of age in UK and Ireland (i.e. born on or after the 1st September 1994).

All teams who enter will compete in a regional round in February or March. The teams that do well will then be invited to attend Finals' Day in Oxford.

Regional Rounds (England): February 2010 (Date TBC)
Regional Rounds (Scotland and Ireland): March 2010 (Date TBC)
Finals' Day (held in Oxford): 15 May 2010

A workshop will be held at least a week before each regional round, and all registered teams are encouraged to attend. Students who have not debated before can learn the rules and practice during the workshop.

More about Regional Rounds

The regional rounds will be run as one-day tournaments. Like all debates in this tournament, the regional rounds will be run in British Parliamentary style (see 'More about Debating' below).

There will be 3 preliminary rounds which all teams participate in. The top 8 teams will enter the Semi-final, followed by a Final for the top 4.

The first preliminary round will be a prepared motion. The motion will be announced 2 weeks beforehand to allow teams to prepare.

All other rounds in the Regional Rounds are short preparation rounds. The motion will be released 15 minutes before the start of each round on 8 May.

More about Finals Day

Finals Day will be held at the Oxford Union. More information will be coming soon!

More about Debating

Debating helps students to think critically, allows them to practise constructing and organising arguments, and develops self-confidence and public speaking skills. It also introduces students to topics of contention and issues in current affairs.

All debates at ICYD are in the British Parliamentary Style. Speeches are 5 minutes each. No prior knowledge of debating is required; workshops will be conducted at least a week before each regional round.

Who can register? How much does it cost?

All participants must be aged 14 years or younger on the 31st August 2009. Each school may send up to two teams (of two debaters per team); requests for more than two teams may be accepted at a later date if a regional round is not full. If you would like to register more than 2 teams in the event that there are spaces, please indicate in the sign-up form.

Registration costs 36 pounds per team. This covers participation in the debating workshop, the one-day regional round tournament, and participation in the Finals' Day if a team is eligible based on results from the regional round. Busaries are available for schools who cannot otherwise afford to attend; they will be examined on a case-by-case basis.

Registration is on a first-come basis.

To register

1) To sign up, fill up this form: International Competition for Young Debaters 2009-2010 Registration Form

2) We will send you a confirmation email upon the receipt of the form. You will then be requested to send a cheque (to 'Oxford Union Society') for the registration costs to:

Attn: Weige Wu, ICYD, Oxford Union, Frewin Court, Oxford, OX1 3JB

3) Upon receipt of the cheque, we will send an email to you confirming your registration. Please note that the places for your students are only confirmed when we have received the cheque and sent you the final confirmation email.

Questions?

Please direct all queries to icyd09reg@googlemail.com

And finally ... who are we?

The Oxford Union Society are hosting ICYD this year. The convenor is Jo Farmer, European Debating Championships finalist and a past ICYD winner herself; the deputy convenor is Weige Wu, a Cork IV finalist.

We are also happy to announce that our Chief Adjudicator this year will be Ben Jasper. Ben is an extremely accomplished debater, having been a finalist and semi-finalist at the European Debating Championships, and also has extensive coaching experience. He is currently the Director of Coaching at the Oxford Union and is responsible for running its development Squad.