Debating coaching in Sydney: a guide for parents

We run an online debating academy, and most of our coaches learned to debate in NSW schools and went on to represent NSW. This guide is what we'd tell a friend who asked how to choose a coach, including the questions to ask us.

Where Sydney students debate

It helps to know what your child is being coached for. Most Sydney students debate in one or more of these:

• The Premier's Debating Challenge, run by the NSW Department of Education's Arts Unit for government schools, with competitions for different year groups.
• Independent and Catholic schools' competitions, including ISDA and CSDA, plus competitions within school associations such as GPS.
• Regional and state representative debating. Arts Unit regions pick squads for the Junior State Debating Championships (Years 9 and 10). The Combined High Schools team takes Year 11 and 12 students from government schools.
• The NSW Schools Debating Team, selected by the NSW Debating Union from trials open to Years 10 to 12. We've written a separate guide to how state team selection works.

Almost all of these use the 3-on-3 format. If your child is new to it, our lesson on how a debate works is a good place to start.

What to check before you pay

Coaches whose results you can check

Debating results are public. State team lists, tournament speaker tabs and university championship results are all published. If a provider says its coaches are “experienced” or “award-winning”, ask which teams they debated for and what they won, then look it up. A coach who has recently competed at state, national or university championship level knows what the top of the activity looks like now.

Coaching is a different skill from competing, so ask about that too. Has the coach taught students of your child's age?

How often your child actually speaks

Students improve by giving speeches and getting feedback on them. Listening to a coach helps less. In a class of fifteen, a student might speak once in a session or not at all. Ask how many students are in a class and how many speeches each one gives per session. Our classes have six or fewer students, so everyone speaks every week.

Feedback your child can act on

“Good speech, work on your rebuttal” is not feedback. Useful feedback names the moment in the speech, explains what was missing, and gives the student something specific to do in the next one. Ask a provider what feedback looks like, and ask your child after a trial class what they were told to change.

What happens between classes

Two hours a week is a good start, but ask what the student does between sessions. Our students get a weekly newsletter and a recorded seminar on the week's concept before class, then a quiz and a live debate in class. Other providers set homework or reading. What matters is that the week has some structure.

Online or in person

In-person classes suit some children, especially younger ones who find it hard to concentrate on a screen. Online classes remove the drive across Sydney at 5pm, and they let students learn from coaches who are at university and still competing, who often can't get to a suburban classroom on a weeknight. Debate works well on video because only one person speaks at a time. The two things that make online work are a small group and cameras on.

Questions to ask any provider

1. Who will coach my child, and what have they won or represented?
2. How many students are in a class, and how many speeches does each give per session?
3. What does feedback look like after a speech?
4. What does my child do between classes?
5. How are classes grouped by year level and experience?
6. What will I hear about my child's progress, and how often?
7. What does a term cost in total, and what's the refund policy?

How DebateBetter works

Here are our own answers to those questions.

You can read the coaches' full records on the coaches page and see class times and enrolment on the programs page. If you'd rather talk it through first, get in touch.