Once debating belonged to the circles of those with posh voices, starched uniforms and a love of little triangle sandwiches. However, over the past 20 years school debating has evolved into a sexier discipline.             

Debating has been a feature of NSW public schools since the 1930s, when the Hume Barbour Competition started for metropolitan area senior debating students. Today there are more than 1,000 schools with students from Years 5 to 12 in the Premier’s Debating Challenge – some schools entering more than two teams in each age division.              

Lloyd Cameron, the department’s speaking competitions coordinator, says students in NSW public schools are realising that to join the school’s debating team means gaining valuable opportunities to network and meet new friends, develop charismatic, public-speaking skills, understand how to win an argument and be positioned at the pointy end of current affairs issues.             

“We like to have the topics as current as possible – you have to be well informed if you are going to be a successful debater – you can’t just have a nice voice or a dramatic manner, you have to understand what is happening in the world at large,” Mr Cameron says.             

“In the past neatness of uniform and a plummy accent were considered to be important attributes but no longer. It’s much more what you say and how you deal with your opponents’ arguments and how you present your own case.”             

Mr Cameron says debating is an ideal extracurricular discipline with long-term pay offs because it encourages young people to express themselves with confidence and to understand both sides of an argument.             

These are traits, he says, that are important for a wide range of professions including law, politics, medicine, journalism and even comedy.             

Craig Reucassel, a member of the popular television program The Chaser, says his participation in debating at school, university and beyond has played an enormous role in the development of his career.             

“Debating teaches an analytical approach to things. It’s very good in making you try and appreciate two sides of an argument … it also makes you interact with the world and current affairs,” Mr Reucassel says.             

It also helped him learn to think on his feet: “In debating a witty response always went down well. To come up with them for debating helped me to come up with them for The Chaser.             

“The skills you get are pretty useful for anything. I know doctors and scientists that did a lot of debating and I’m sure they’re in a better place to argue for funding.”             

Mr Reucassel, who attended Bowral High School in the Southern Highlands, says the benefits don’t just stop at debating skills.             

“The reality is that most of The Chaser met through debating – Julian [Morrow], Dom [Knight], Charles [Firth] – we went on to do theatre sports and performing but the genesis of The Chaser group was through debating,” he says.             

Mr Reucassel says the only downside to the discipline is the constant offer of small triangle sandwiches “particularly with cucumber on them”.             

“If you find a school that serves something that isn’t a small triangular sandwich you’re really ahead of the game,” he says.              

A school that is certainly a leader in the field both for its debating talent and its decision to serve wraps is Inverell High.              

Situated about 600 kilometres from Sydney, the school’s Year 7/8 debating team has won the Premier’s Debating Challenge for the past two years.             

Principal Karen Roberts says public speaking and debating is a feature of the curriculum and every one of the 650 students has the chance to participate in debating and a formal public-speaking night presented each year to the parents. Those who excel are offered places in the debating teams.             

“You have to hear some of these Year 8 students, it just blows you away how sophisticated they are – their vocabulary, how they structure their arguments, their poise and confidence,” Ms Roberts says.             

At the state championships held at the end of last year, one of the opponent’s students was heard to say, “Where is Inverell?”, which for the school team made the victory even sweeter, Ms Roberts says.             

“It takes a lot of time, enthusiasm and drive, or rather driving, often for many kilometres to simply compete,” Ms Roberts says. Her students are not discouraged by distance.              

“They’re country kids – it’s a big opportunity. It’s going to the big smoke and it’s a chance for them to learn how to fit in and meet other students.”             

One of Inverell High’s debating rivals, Smiths Hill High School in the Illawarra region, is also capitalising on the benefits debating brings to students. The school has won the Hume Barbour Trophy for the past two years.             

Kerry Doyle, the school’s debating coach, says watching the students develop and grow into members of society is a personal gain. More importantly the students learn to have an opinion.             

“Mainly they have one-hour preparation debates so students really have to draw on their knowledge immediately. Being able to stand up on their feet and speak in an articulate way about something off the cuff and being able to back up their opinion ... they will come away from debating knowing how to do that.”             

Ms Doyle says making debating fun by providing names and mascots for the teams as well as debating on comical topics is lifting the image of debating in the school.             

“It’s something very worthwhile that every school should get involved in because the kids get so much out of it,” Ms Doyle says.             

But do they get triangle sandwiches of a cucumber variety?             

“We ask for quiches and pies instead. When it’s not our school organising it we always end up with little triangle sandwiches. The adjudicators tend to like them but the students don’t and it should be more about the students,” she says.