Resources
Hosting Guide
Thank you for your interest in hosting a round with the National Debating League. This page will outline the facilities and preparations necessary.
First, we'll start with a few key points:
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We want this to be an easy experience for you.- It isn’t necessary to provide expensive snacks or gifts for everyone. We want this to be something your school can afford to do even in a difficult financial year.
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We're flexible.- No two schools are the same, so we’ll adapt our planning to fit your school and the facilities available on the day.
Key Numbers
These numbers will change based on the size of the event we’re hosting together.
If we’re hosting a pilot round, you can safely plan around these figures.
- Students
- ~80
- Educators
- ~20
- Parents
- ~25
- Classrooms
- ~10
- Round Duration
- ~3 hrs
Overview
The Three Events
Every pilot or league round plays out in the same way.
Arrivals
We’ll need a central gathering space capable of holding our participants and teachers at the same time. A school hall is ideal but a quadrangle or the front of the school building can work equally well.
We’ll need someone from your school to brief everyone about the key facilities they’ll need to find. A microphone, if possible, will help.
We’ll run a debate introduction workshop if this is a pilot round.
Debates
The debates will happen in classrooms. The classrooms will need to be appropriately set for a debate.
The tournament director will have a printed list describing where each team will debate and who their adjudicators will be. Parents are always welcome to watch.
We keep our adjudicators alert with Ferrero Rocher chocolates.
Classroom Layout
Awards & Debrief
The same space used for the arrival briefing will be used for the awards. We’ll need space for our banner and a podium and/or a table. At a pilot or league round students may win medals based on their team's performance. The best speaker of each debate gets a box of smarties.
What do we need from our hosts?
- Your school hall or a team teaching room
- We'll need enough seating for our teachers, parents and students. It helps tremendously if we have access to a microphone and speakers.
- Classrooms for debates
- It helps to have the classrooms in the same area of the school.
- Help inviting local schools
- More schools = more exciting competition! Please help us invite other schools in your area.
Our commitment to host schools
- Respectful treatment of your facilities
- We want this to be a long-term relationship. We’ll clean up after ourselves and encourage our participants to do the same. Debate has an exceptionally good student to teacher ratio, so we rarely have issues with this.
- Opportunities for marketing and promotion
- We’re ready to help your school make an impression on our young debaters and parents.
- High operational standards
- We take the quality of our events very seriously. You can rest assured that our events will run on time and that we’ve put in the necessary preparation to make it run smoothly.
Frequently asked questions
Have a different question and can’t find the answer you’re looking for? Reach out to us by sending an email or WhatsApp +27 81 343 9036.
- Does the school need to print anything?
- We’ll take care of printing the signs for the debate rooms and the materials used by adjudicators. All you’ll have to print are signs leading to the bathrooms.
- Do we need a microphone, sound system or projector in the hall?
- These are great to have, but not essential.
- Can we debate without changing the layout of the classrooms?
- This might be possible, depending on the existing layout.
- Should the host school provide refreshments or snacks?
- This is great, but completely optional. If you do, please only make this available to teachers or parents. Offering snacks to everyone might set unrealistic expectations for the next host.
- Do we need a photographer?
- We would love to have your school’s inhouse photographer present, but please don’t go through any expense to hire someone external.
- Can our staff speak to the audience?
- Certainly! We can make time for words of encouragement from you or your principal.
- Can we bring spectators?
- Absolutely! Family members, fellow staff and students are welcome to any part of the day.