The competition is held in Terms 2 and 3 of each year.
Entry is open to a maximum of 2 teams of 3 students from each of Years 7 –10 and 4 teams of 3 students from the senior years from any Catholic School (see Rules of the metropolitan debating competition) in the metropolitan or greater metropolitan area of NSW. (See also the Constitution of the CSDA.)
The regional schools of NSW also participate in a regional debating day to determine the teams to come together in Sydney to debate the regional finals in November each year. The winners of the regional competition then go on to debate the winners of the metropolitan competition in the state finals.
The metropolitan competition is run in 5 preliminary rounds followed by (if needed) play offs then quarter-finals, semi-finals and finals.
The style of debating in the preliminary rounds allows some preparation within a topic area, followed by a one hour preparation of an unseen topic from the topic area once sides have been allocated by a toss of a coin on the evening of the debate. The style of debating for the quarter-finals, semis and finals is impromptu conflict debating with 1 hour preparation.
In any given round in the preliminary section of the competition, in excess of 3000 people, including students, volunteer adjudicators and debating teachers are involved in the competition.
In this area of the website, you will find information on the rules, format and running of debating competitions in the Catholic Schools Debating Association.
Entry Form for Debating in the CSDA 2010 Competition
This form is to be used for schools entering the CSDA Debating Competition for 2010
Rules of the Metropolitan Debating Competition
Debating topics for the 2010 metropolitan competition
Debating draw for the 2010 metropolitan competition
A suggested checklist for debating co-ordinators to use. This also includes the debating room setup.
This document provides a report to be given to teams if requested.
Chairperson's information sheet