School Debating in Scotland is a competitive activity taken up on an extracurricular basis by many schools across the country. The main format of schools debating in Scotland is British Parliamentry, and competitons in this format are mostly run by universities across Scotland, although more national university competitions, such as Oxford and Cambridge, hold regional rounds in Scotland as well. The BP format of debating consists of teams of two from individual schools. However, School debaters also have the opportunity to debate in the Worlds format of debating, if they are selected to represent their country as Team Scotland at the World Schools Debating Championships. Each year, 12 school pupils are chosen to trial and from this group a team of 5 is chosen.
Scotland has won this tournament 4 times, in 1990,1999, 2007 and 2012, and reached the outrounds of the competiton every year since they began competing in it, except in the 2013 tournament, held in Antalya,Turkey. Comprehensive debating resources for Scottish schools debaters and their coaches were written by the English-Speaking Union Scotland last year and can be found at Learning & Teaching Scotland.
Read more about School Debating In Scotland: The Law Society Donald Dewar Memorial Debating Tournament, The Courier and Chartered Institute of Bankers in Scotland Schools Junior Debating Competition, The ESU Scotland Juniors Competition, Glasgow University Union Schools Debating Competition, Other Tournaments, Website and Information
Famous quotes containing the words school, debating and/or scotland:
“I am both a public and a private school boy myself, having always changed schools just as the class in English in the new school was taking up Silas Marner, with the result that it was the only book in the English language that I knew until I was eighteen—but, boy, did I know Silas Marner!”
—Robert Benchley (1889–1945)
“Scepticism, as I said, is not intellectual only; it is moral also; a chronic atrophy and disease of the whole soul. A man lives by believing something; not by debating and arguing about many things. A sad case for him when all that he can manage to believe is something he can button in his pocket, and with one or the other organ eat and digest! Lower than that he will not get.”
—Thomas Carlyle (1795–1881)
“The “second sight” possessed by the Highlanders in Scotland is actually a foreknowledge of future events. I believe they possess this gift because they don’t wear trousers.”
—G.C. (Georg Christoph)