Youth Speaks - A Debate

For this competition, Rotary Youth Speaks - A Debate, a team of 3 young people present opposing viewpoints on a topic of their choice. They will then be asked a question(s) from a pre-selected member of the audience. The young people have 15 minutes to present their debate.

Participants can select a topic which is important to them, giving them an opportunity to delve deep into research, formulate ideas and build confidence.

The Rotary Youth Speaks: A Debate competition may be run over three different stages; club level, district and cluster. For 2024-25, there will be no national final.

Age categories:

Rules & Guidance Notes are published annually on the Rotary GB&I website. 

Competition Information:

If, as a school group etc  you are interested in participating in this competition next year, please contact your local Rotary club in the first instance. Clubs can be found via this website. Not every club participates, but they will direct you to a club that does.

Rotarians who need help or guidance to organise your club or area round, please contact the Mark Philpot - link below. It will be helpful to the organiser to have an early indication from clubs thinking of participating. Competition dates will be published here when known, but as a guide, club rounds need to run by mid January. The District round is generally around February or early March, followed by Region in March or April, and then RGBI in late April to early May. Dates vary slightly from one year to the next in an attempt to work around school holidays.

2024/25 Information:

It is intended that for the year 2024/25 Youth Speaks-A Debate will run again in the District. Many schools are keen to accept the opportunity to widen students’ skills by participating in the competition which promotes Public Speaking.

Simply, a team of three will act as Chairperson, a Proposer, and an Opposer of a meeting which debates a topic selected by the young people themselves. The ‘meeting’ lasts for 15 minutes and involves one question from the audience. Afterwards an adjudicator will provide feedback from a team of judges which is intended to enhance and develop the students’ expertise.

Clubs usually run a competition at local level, and the winner then competes against other teams in the District, (February)  from which a winner is selected to represent the District at Regional (March).

Schools and Clubs have the whole of the Autumn Term to prepare and participate. Interested teachers who are unaware of their local Club may contact the District Youth Speaks Co-ordinator for practical advice. Clubs wishing to take part may gain guidance in the same way.

The planned date for the District competition in 2025 will be posted here when known. February is the likely month, and Wrexham the likely venue. Please contact Mark Philpot for confirmation. We do not expect to run a Youth Speaks Cluster Final this year.

Resources for Rotarians

**Please note: If you do not print off the form and you would like to use the interactive version, please save a copy to your computer before you start inputting. If you do not save the form to your computer, you will lose all inputted information

Resources for the Public

Results from Previous Years:

2023-24 Rotary Youth Speaks - A Debate - National Final

2022/23 results:

The District competitions (senior and intermediate) were well supported, and the winning teams both came from YsgolTreffynnon. There was no Regional round this year (our four neighbouring Districts had no entries) so our two teams went straight to the RGBI final on 23rd April. Both teams put up an impressive performance, but did not win.

(Photo Credits 2017 & 2019)