History

Prior to 2004 the only junior debating competition which schools from across the UK could enter was the Oxford Junior Competition, which subsequently became NCYD (the National Competition for Young Debaters) and then, with the introduction of an Irish round, ICYD (the International Competition for Young Debaters). Yet there were an increasing number of junior debaters with frustratingly few opportunities to compete. Furthermore, only those who were under fifteen could take part in NCYD. This meant there were no more opportunities to gain external competition experience before competing against sixth formers. The North East was under-represented in schools debating, with Durham Schools being the only competition in the region and with only a couple of schools having significant experience.

The Northern Junior Debating Championship was established in 2004 to fill these gaps.

Roger Cotes, then a debater at Oxford, established the competition with the support of the Oxford and Durham Union societies who provided judges. 52 teams from across the UK competed and, despite the intervention of an errant fire alarm, the competition was a resounding success, with Robert Gordon's College of Aberdeen securing the innaugural victory.

NJDC is now the biggest one-day junior debating competition in the UK and has become the regular starting gun for the schools' debating year. Many of those who competed in the earliest tournaments have now gone on to star in the main schools debating events.

In 2005 was jointly convened by Roger and Harish Natarajan, also an Oxford debater and continued to expand and improve. The competition was won by Newcastle Royal Grammar School. In 2006 the competition was again convened by Harish, whilst Roger went on to convene ICYD. Roger returned to convene the 2007 competition with the assistance of Andrew Bellis. Andrew then convened the competition solo in 2008 and 2009. The NJDC trophy travelled south after both of those competitions, with victories for the Grammar School at Leeds and Bradford Grammar Schools respectively. Richard Coates, a winner of the competition in 2006, has agreed to convene the competition for 2010.

NJDC is a non-profit making competition and any money made surplus to costs is used for bursaries, travel grants or otherwise re-invested into the competition.

Find the results of previous tournaments: 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008 and 2009.