QatarDebate is excited to announce the results of its two day trials for the Qatar National Debate Team.  These 8 amazing students will be representing Qatar at a variety of international events.  Keep checking back here to find out where in the world the Qatar's National Debate Team will go next!  All the participants did a great job, with 60 students from over 15 schools who gave up their Friday, during exams, to compete for these 8 spots on the team.  24 returned on Saturday for a full day of debates.  These final 8 debaters are our new team:

(in no particular order)

Tamman Al-Ghraoui (Qatar Academy)

Sara Al Shamlan (Qatar Academy)

Chantelle D'mello (Qatar Academy)

Arwa Alsanois (Amna Bint Wahab Secondary School for Girls)

Dana Al Ansari (Park House English School)

Moiz Abid Bohra (Burla Public School)

Mohammed Zuhair Hubrack (Cambridge School)

Sarah Salih (Al Khor International School)

Following on from the success of the 2nd annual Qatar National Debating Championships, QatarDebate is pleased to announce its debating workshop schedule for the month of May:
 
Sunday May 24th - Friday 29th 2009
 



This month, the workshops will be featuring:

1. School & university debating workshops at 4 different levels
2. Friendly Exhibition Debate between teachers and students
3. Friendly Debate between a guest team from the UAE and a school
4. Assigning a specific coach for NEW schools to help with establishing its debate club
5. Drop in sessions in the afternoon for students, coaches, and judges.
 
To sign up for any of these workshop session, please contact qatardebate@qf.org.qa with the specific details of your request.

Team Qatar (directed by Liz Mermin), a documentary film which follows the first ever Qatar National Schools’ Debating Team through their training in Doha, London and New York to the World Schools’ Debating Championships in Washington DC, made a significant impression at its premiere at the Tribeca Film Festival in New York on 25th April 2009.

http://www.tribecafilm.com/filmguide/Team_Qatar.html

The film featured at 4 Tribeca showings over the course of the film festival week and will have its broadcast in the UK and internationally on BBC4, Monday May 11th, at 10pm (GMT). The film’s premiere and reception in New York were attended by Her Highness Sheikha Mayassa bint Hamad Al-Thani and the Tribeca film festival’s co-founders, Robert De Niro and Jane Rosenthal, all of whom praised the film and the fact that this boded well for the forthcoming Tribeca Film Festival, Doha – a partnership between TFF and the Qatar Museums Authority – which will take place in Doha in November 2009.

DPS MIS and Doha College won the 2009 Qatar National Schools Debating Championships and Weil Cornell Medical College retained their 2008 Championship title at the 2009 Qatar National Universities Debating Championships; organized by QatarDebate, the national debating organisation for Qatar and a member of Qatar Foundation, chaired by Her Highness Sheikha Mozah Bint Nasser Al Misned.

Dr. Ibrahim Al Nuaimi was the Chief Guest at the 2009 Qatar National Schools Championships, held on Thursday, 23rd April and was hosted by Amna Bint Wahab Prep School. Mr. Tim Sebastian was the Guest of Honour at the 2009 Qatar National Universities Championships, held on 25th April at the LAS Building, Education City, Qatar Foundation. A total of 11 coaches arrived from different countries to conduc workshops and training at a range of schools, including many independent schools, and judge at the national competition, from 12- 26 April.

The Championships witnessed not only huge participation but also multi-cultural exchange of dialogue, ideas and expressions. It brought to reality the dreams and visions of Her Highness Sheikha Mozah and Dr. Hayat Maarafi for QatarDebate. It also gave an opportunity to gain insights from several participating teams, eminent personalities and different individuals from various sections of society.

The 2nd annual Qatar National Schools' and Qatar National Universities' Debating Competitions were held in Doha on 23rd and 25th April 2009. The National Schools' Competition was won by a team from Doha College and the National Universities' Competition was won by a team from Weill Cornell Medical School - Qatar.

The National Schools' Competition was the largest ever schools debating competition in Qatar, with 34 teams competing in the 'Senior' competition and 16 teams competing in the 'Junior' Competition.

The results of the Schools' Competition can be found here:
Team Results (Senior & Junior Competitions)
Individual Speaker Results (Senior & Junior Competitions)

The National Universities' Competition involved 8 teams from universities in Qatar. The competition was won by Weill Cornell Medical School - Qatar, and the best individual speaker in the preliminary rounds was Aisha Abdulla Al-Thwadi from Qatar Foundation's Academic Bridge Program.

The results of the Universities' Competition can be found here:
Team Results
Individual Speaker Results

Both events were a great success, attracting several hundred students to workshops before the national competitions, and training over 30 judges in preparation for the 2010 World Schools' Debating Championship.

QatarDebate is pleased to announce the release of its latest resource for teachers, faculty and debating society, our 'Guide to Adjudicating Debating', written by a team of leading international coaches. The guide covers the basics of debates in the QD format, judging criteria and the mechanics for judging a debate.

This guide is particularly useful for those intending to judge in the Qatar National Debating Competitions, or as part of a debating society, or the Qatar Debate League. The guide can also be used as a reference for those judging debating internationally.

You can download the 'Guide to Adjudicating Debating' in 2 Formats:
- Presentation Version
- Printable Version

As an additional resource, QatarDebate has also made available its 'Judging Score Sheet' for those wishing to keep track of the scores in debates they judge:
- Judging Score Sheet

QatarDebate, the national debating organization for Qatar, will be hosting the 2nd annual National Schools' and National Universities debating competitions in Doha during April 2009.

National Schools' Competition
Thursday 23rd April, 8am - 8pm, at Amna bint Wahab School (Map of location)

National Universities Competition
Saturday 25th April, 9am - 9pm, at the LAS Building in Education City

In preparation for the competitions, a team of 11 international coaches will be present in Qatar from 12-26 April to provide workshops/training to all schools, and to provide intensive coaching for teachers and faculty to participate in the competition as judges.

In preparation for the Qatar National Schools’ Championship on Thursday 23rd April, and the Qatar National Universities Championship on Friday & Saturday 24th – 25th April, QatarDebate will be running a series of judging workshops for teachers, faculty and staff.

Judging workshops will be held on 21st and 22nd April 2009.
These workshops will be led by Simon Quinn, internationally renowned debating coach and Chief Adjudicator of the WSDC Qatar 2010.

Where: LAS Building – Room B013 (4:00 – 7:00 pm)
When: April 21st April 22nd
Details: The workshop will cover all of the information required to judge a QD debate.

Attendance at one of these workshops is compulsory for anyone to judge at either the National Schools’ or National Universities’ competitions.

This month Qatar hosted its inaugural World Leadership Day event at the Education City. It is the first year that Qatar is participating in this event.

The event was sponsored by the QatarDebate Center, a member of the Qatar Foundation which is dedicated to developing and supporting the standard of open discussion and debate amongst students and young people in Qatar and the Arab region.

The inaugural event was held on Thursday, 19th March at the Qatar Foundation Headquarters Building (Education City), from 5:30pm to 9:30pm.

H.E. the Minister of Culture, Arts & Heritage Dr. Hamad bin Abdulaziz Al-Kuwari, Sheikh Saoud bin Abdulrahman Al Thani, General Secretary of Qatar Olympic Committee along with other distinguished guests have attended the event.

The event was closed by a live debate between two teams of high schools on the following motion: “This House Believes that Leaders are Born not Made”

The Qatar National Schools’ Debating Team returned from their 2nd year competing World Schools’ Debating Championships, once again as one of the strongest emerging debating nations.

Team Qatar were ranked 19th out of over 40 teams competing, winning 4 of their preliminary round debates, including debates against Turkey, Sweden and Indonesia, and retained their ‘B’ status at the competition, the highest of any recent entrant nations.

Team Qatar was represented by Sara Al-Shamlan (Qatari), Dana Al-Ansari (Qatari), Talal Burshaid (Qatari), Fatima Hijran (Iraqi), Tina Niaki (Iranian), and Vartan Shadarevian (Syrian).

During the competition, Team Qatar were hosted at the Qatari Embassy in Athens by The Ambassador of Qatar in Athens, H.E. Hamad Abdullah Al-Misnad, on Wednesday 18th February.