Entries for the Debating Matters Competition 2012/13 are now being taken. This year we’re delighted to be expanding the competition by 50%, allowing more schools to compete for the first time in places such as Yorkshire and London. The 72 Qualifying Rounds will see 288 schools compete throughout the autumn, from late September to early December, for one of just 72 Regional Final places in the spring of 2013. From Aberdeen to Bodmin, Norwich to Prestatyn, students from across the UK will be debating a range of contemporary social, political, scientific and cultural issues - so if you want your schools to be a part of Debating Matters next year then apply now! Entry deadline 13 July.

In this exciting year of expansion, we are delighted to be working again in 2012/13 with our sponsors and supporters: the Wellcome Trust, Hodder Education, the Medical Research Council and to welcome the competition’s new Headline Sponsor, Statoil, who’ve helped make this possible. Staff at Statoil, an international energy company, were really impressed with the quality of debates they judged in the South East region they sponsored this year, and are looking forward to judging many more debates in 2012/13.

To see which rounds are happening across the UK, see the full list below.

Central

Nottingham & Derby, 2 October
West Midlands, 4 October
Warwickshire, 22 November
Staffordshire, 28 November
Birmingham (formerly Lincolnshire), 11 December
Leicestershire, 12 December

East

Hertfordshire, 15 October
Essex, 6 November
Norfolk, 7 November
Cambridgeshire, 22 November
Northamptonshire (formerly Bedfordshire), 26 November
Suffolk, 27 November

London Inner

Camden, 16 October
Tower Hamlets, 7 November
Islington, 8 November
Lambeth, 28 November
Kensington & Chelsea (formerly Southwark), 3 December
Hackney, 10 December

London North

Havering, 10 October
Ealing, 23 October
Hounslow (fomerly Newham), 15 November
Harrow, 20 November
Enfield, 27 November
Redbridge, 6 December

London South

Wandsworth, 8 October
Croydon, 13 November
Bromley, 19 November
Lewisham & Southwark, 21 November
Tooting (formerly Kingston), 26 November
Greenwich, 5 December

North East

Newcastle, 8 October
Durham, 9 October
Middlesbrough, 19 November
Northumberland, 20 November
Cumbria, 29 November
Gateshead, 4 December

North West & North Wales

Manchester, 11 October
Merseyside, 17 October
Blackburn, 6 November
Lancashire, 14 November
North Wales, 15 November
Cheshire, 3 December

Scotland & Northern Ireland

Northern Ireland West, 24 September
Northern Ireland East, 25 September
Glasgow, 1 October
Edinburgh, 14 November
Fife & Stirling, 26 November
Aberdeen, 4 December

South

Berkshire, 1 October
Oxfordshire, 10 October
Dorset, 16 October
Buckinghamshire, 7 November
Hampshire, 8 November
Portsmouth & Isle of Wight, date to be confirmed for January 2013

South East

Brighton & Hove, 2 October
Medway, 8 October
Surrey, 9 October
Reigate & Crawley, 15 October
West Kent, 12 November
East Kent, 21 November

West & South Wales

Bristol, 3 October
Cheltenham, 11 October
Devon & Cornwall, 13 November
Somerset, 29 November
South Wales, 11 December
Swindon, 12 December

Yorkshire

South Yorkshire, 16 October
Leeds, 23 October
North Yorkshire, 8 November
West Yorkshire, 14 November
Bradford, 19 November
East Yorkshire, 10 December

FURTHER HELP

If you’d like to take part in Debating Matters 2012/13, see the competition Applications page for further details. For more information about the competition, and its unique format, have a look at our Get Involved section, and if you’d like to talk to someone about Debating Matters call or email Justine Brian. If you would like to support Debating Matters this year, contact the competition’s director, Tony Gilland.