Debating Pandas

Mixed Experience: Years 7 - 9

Debating Pandas is the ideal course for early high school students looking to consolidate their debating skills.

Student to Teacher Ratio 9:1

Course Objectives

Provide students with strong foundations as debaters, with a different focus each term.
Give students the opportunity to participate in a multiple of debates on a range of different topics.
Allow students multiple practice opportunities, and receive plenty of individual feedback.

Dates: Wednesday 5th of Feb to 9th of April (10 weeks)

Time: 5:20pm to 7:20pm

Price: $630

Course Overview

Debating is an integral part of the modern co-curricular programs run at schools today. Not only does it help students develop their confidence -and work as a team – it also helps other essential skills crucial in day-to-day life at school. From critical thinking to building resilience (losing is never easy, but it’s even more difficult after giving a speech), there is plenty that all students can take away from debating!

Our Debating Pandas program provides students with the foundations they’ll need to take part in (and in most cases actually enjoy) debating. Through learning proper case theory, argument structure and rebuttal strategy, this course is a great way to prepare students for some of the new speaking and analytical challenges they will be presented with throughout late primary and early high school.

Whilst always revising the essential elements of debating – cases, arguments and rebuttal – the focus of Debating Pandas changes every term, with the following focuses in 2025:

Term #1: Common Topic Areas

Term #2: Engaging Debaters

Term #3: Principled Debating

Term #4: Policy Rebuttal

While it’s recommended that students try each of these focuses, and the emphases change each year, there is no particular need to start with any of them, meaning students are welcome to join at any time!

As with all our programs, class sizes are kept small so that each student can be provided with maximum support and attention, including plenty of individualised feedback from our experienced coaches.

Our Term #1 Focus - Policy Cases + Teamwork!

Debating, like many sports and other activities, is won and lost as a team – whilst individual performances are important, it is the team element that really defines success in a debate.

In Term #1 of the Debating Pandas program, students will explore a number of these topic areas and learn strategies to tackle them. Beginning with common subjects for this age group, such as education and role of government debates, students will have the chance to consider the typical stakeholders and issues involved in each.

This program connects theoretical concepts to the real world through engaging activities and debates, ensuring learners are able to apply what they’ve learned. They’ll also receive personalised feedback every step of the way – helping them realise their full potential. Over the course of the term, students will have the opportunity to: learn the core fundamentals about ‘Policy’ debates; explore case development, argument structure and rebuttal strategies, with a particular focus on specific topic areas that often come up in interschool competitions; deploy what they have learned in at least three in-class debates across the term; practice different speaking roles and argue from both affirmative and negative sides of a debate; and learn how to work effectively in a team environment!

Who Should Do This Program?

Our Debating Pandas program is a mixed-level class for students in Years 7 – 9 designed for students starting out in the world of debating as well as those with some speaking experience.

Debating Pandas caters for students in Years 7 who: have completed one or more terms of Debating Parrots (or our Debating Hummingbirds or Debating Hawks holiday workshop) and have been recommended to move up by their coach; have completed one or more terms of Debating Pandas, and haven’t yet been recommended for the more advanced Debating Club program (which is available for Year 7+); and are part of their interschool debating team, or have received formal training from another provider, but are still in primary school (and so cannot yet join Debating Club).

Additionally, Debating Pandas caters for students in Years 8 & 9 who: have public speaking, but little (or no) debating experience (such as completing Public Speaking Penguins);

have completed one or more terms of Debating Pandas, and haven’t yet been recommended for the more advanced Debating Club program (which is available for students in Year 8 & 9); and are part of their interschool debating team, or have received formal training from another provider, but are still looking for more of the fundamentals (and so cannot yet join Debating Club).

We usually recommend that students do at least four terms of Debating Pandas, and especially students in Year 7, before moving up to Debating Club to ensure they cover all the essential concepts inherent to debating and feel comfortable with older students!

Please get in touch if you’d like to discuss what’s best for your child!

What Are The Main objectives of this program?

Over the course of the term, students will have the opportunity to:

learn core introductory theory about ‘Policy’ debates;
explore case development, argument structure and rebuttal strategies, and how these all link to the burdens they need to prove to win debates;
deploy what they have learned in at least three in-class debates across the term;
practice different speaking roles and argue from both affirmative and negative sides of a debate; and
learn how to work effectively in a team environment!

what will students cover over the course of the term?

Fostering a Nurturing Class Environment

At the beginning of each Debating program, the coach seeks to facilitate a welcoming class environment and ensures that all students across the elemental rules and concepts involved in debating – in short, that everyone feels accepted and up to speed, regardless of their experience. The early sessions also involve a range of speaking activities that help students develop their fundamental debating skills.

Case Structure, Argumentation + Rebuttal

Over the first couple of sessions, the students will alternate each week between covering crucial debating skills – such as argumentation and rebuttal – with practice debates. It is important to cover each of these concepts first, and ensure that everyone is across them – this helps students to feel comfortable and confident enough to express their ideas, allowing them to start concentrating on their speaking manner instead.

Burdens

From the mid-point of the term, students will take the skills they’ve covered in the first few weeks, and start linking them to burdens – the central ideas that they need to prove in order to win a debate as a team. This involves going through burden theory, and then various activities to help students practice those links, creating a much stronger association in their minds.

Practice Debates

In addition to all the theory, students will have the opportunity to participate in multiple practice debates during the term (and almost every week as the term progresses). Each debate will be on a different topic, and students will have the opportunity to speak in various roles across the term.

Parent Presentations

As with all our weekly programs, the term concludes with a presentation to the students’ parents. This is a great way to help them develop the confidence to speak directly to adults, as well as being a good opportunity for them to showcase their new skills.

For physical classes, we’ll make an assessment closer to the end of the term as to whether we can run presentations in person – if government restrictions still prevent parents from entering the classrooms, we’ll either film their presentations, or alternatively livestream them for parents to watch from home!

If there aren’t any spots left, it’s usually because we’ve hit capacity – please get in touch with us and we’ll see what we can do about either opening an extra class, fitting your child into the existing class, or putting you on a waitlist in case any students pull out!

How Big Is The Class?

Our classes vary in size for every program depending on how many bookings we receive – however, the maximum size of our Debating Parrots class is around nine students with one coach.

what will students have at the end of the program?

By the end of each program, students will have:

a feedback sheet, prepared individually for them by their coach, which goes through what they’ve improved on, and what still needs some work;
a certificate recognising their achievements;
a course booklet that covers everything they’ve learned throughout the program;
the speech that they prepared for their final presentations; and
a better understanding of how debating works from a practical perspective!