Debating & Public Speaking Club

Expression of Interest: 2027 Debating and Public Speaking Club 

To begin planning activities for next year's Debating and Public speaking club, we are taking initial expressions of interest for students to take part in the Debating and Public Speaking program. 

If you are interested, please fill out this form

How it works: 

• Debating club offers students from Years 7-12 opportunities to participate in interschool and school-based debating and public speaking events.  
• The main debate program is run by the Debaters Association of Victoria over five rounds across Terms 1-3, with the Junior School Program in Terms 3-4.  
• Students will be placed in grades dependent on their year level (JSP and Year 8 program = Year 7-8; D-Grade = Year 9; C-Grade = Year 10; B-Grade = Year 11; A-Grade = Year 12). 
• Additional public speaking and leadership competitions are also offered as they come up throughout the year. These include, but are not limited to: the Plain English Speaking Competition (PESA), Lion's Club Youth of the Year, Ainger Peck Public Speaking Competition, UN Youth Conference National Schools Constitutional Competition, NHS International Students Public Speaking Competition and hosting and adjudicating the Grade 6 Public Speaking Competition, among others. 
• Students are supported in all aspects of participation in events from registration and preparation. 
• Students are supported with training on debate structure, preparation and research and presentation 
• Weekly meetings are held at lunchtimes during peak times to act as a touch point to check on progress, announce new opportunities advertised and run mini training sessions. 
• Year 10-11 mentor program will begin in 2027 to help more senior students continue to develop their leadership skills by supporting junior students.  
• Meetings are casual, and are inclusive to all student ages and experiences.  
• Closed Teams group for student members for communication. 

2027 Club Cost 

• Most events incur registration fees, but in 2027, NHS will partly subsidise the cost of registration for student participation. To cover the remaining costs of registration and participation, families are asked to pay the nominal fee of $45*. This will be created at the start of 2027 as a Compass event.   
• *this is an approximate cost at the moment, dependent on how many students express interest in joining or continuing with the program.  
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Further questions? 

• Please contact Debating and Public Speaking Coordinator:  
• Elenni Balis - elenni.balis@nhs.vic.edu.au 

Expression of interest form can be found here: https://forms.cloud.microsoft/Pages/ResponsePage.aspx?id=w6jAXEBz7EO4Invj-9wmlkWOFzZq8qxKm0HSV6csVFRUNkFYSVlJRUZHODk2MkpXVlVMQ09NQ0NPQy4u