AISL
Dedicated to nurturing students with global perspectives and passions for lifelong learning , AISL Harrow Schools has been offering various programmes and activities, including speeches, argumentative writing, and debate competitions to improve students’ communication skills and shape their values. With these experiences and skills, students are better prepared to gain admission to top universities whilst contributing to society with their intellect.
Following the success of the highly acclaimed AISL Cambridge Connect Debate Summer Camp last year, we are excited to debut the Joint-School AISL Harrow Debate Championship from March to April 2024. Co-hosted by Zongheng, a leading debate organisation, the tournament will involve more than 450 students from nine AISL Harrow Schools located in Beijing, Shanghai, Hong Kong, Shenzhen Qianhai, Haikou, Chongqing, Nanning, and Hengqin.
Zongheng has a wealth of experience in cultivating critical thinking among native Chinese-speaking students. Its signature Chinese school debate tournaments, the Asian Cup Chinese Debate Championships and Zongheng International School Mandarin Debate Tournament, have attracted participation from over 400 schools worldwide.
To better support students to prepare for the Debate Championship, teachers at AISL Harrow Schools received comprehensive training to assist them in guiding students. Students will benefit from valuable soft skills that will have a lasting impact on their lives, including critical thinking , the ability to form well-reasoned viewpoints, as well as language proficiency and public speaking skills.
Students can choose to participate in the Online Writing Challenge, the Oral Debate Tournament, or both. Each format looks for different qualities in contestants, providing students with the opportunity to shine.
1. Online Writing Challenge
Students’ reasoning skills in writing will be the primary focus. They will be assessed based on their ability to respond swiftly, articulate complex concepts, and demonstrate critical thinking skills while actively searching for information in real time.
Format: Teams of two; the top 80 teams will advance to the finals.
Preliminaries: 25 to 29 March 2024
Finals: 13 April 2024
2. Oral Debate Tournament
This section assesses students’ responsiveness, logical reasoning abilities, interactions with others, etiquette, stage presence, and verbal communication skills.
Format: Each participating school will nominate two winning teams from preliminaries within their school to compete in the finals.
Preliminaries: 18 to 22 March 2024
Finals: 20 April 2024
The judging panel will consist of the experts from Zongheng, as well as tutors of the masterclasses who are available exclusively to the finalists.
We look forward to the remarkable performance of the participants and the outstanding skills they will showcase.
35/F, Office Tower, Convention Plaza, 1 Harbour Road, Wan Chai, Hong Kong SAR
