ISDS Young Learners’ Academy

ISDS Young Learners' Academy

The Young Learners’ Academy is designed as a comprehensive programme for students (in grades 7/8) who are yet to enter the world of public speaking and debate. It consists of 5 Modules delivered over 4 weeks with each week including live online sessions and take home assignments.

Introducing the ISDS Young Learners’ Academy

The Young Learners’ Academy is designed as a comprehensive programme for students in grades 7-8 who are yet to enter the world of public speaking and debate. It combines and elevates our content from the ISDS Budding Speaker Launchpad and the ISDS Junior Academies with a debate competition at the end to provide a holistic overview of engagement with debate.

What do students learn?

The Young Learners’ Academy consists of 5 Modules delivered over 4 weeks. Each week includes live online sessions and take home assignments. We expect that students will spend 8-10 hours each week on course-related activities.

  • Week 1: Developing speaking skills and confidence
  • Week 2: Introduction to the WSDC format
  • Week 3: Argumentation
  • Week 4: Responses
  • Week 5: Evaluation

► The detailed articulation of the structure and contents of the course can be found here

Session Details

Session Title Date & Time
1/ Essential Principles of Public Speaking Mar 17 ’26 (Tue)
6:00-8:00 pm IST
2/ Crafting Impactful Speeches Mar 19 ’26 (Thu)
6:00-8:00 pm IST
3/ Delivering Impactful Speeches Mar 24 ’26 (Tue)
6:00-8:00 pm IST
4/ Practice Makes Perfect – Speech Delivery and Feedback Mar 26 ’26 (Thu)
6:00-8:00 pm IST
5/ Introduction to WSDC Debating Mar 28 ’26 (Sat)
6:00-8:00 pm IST
6/ Setting up Debates and Building Policies Mar 31 ’26 (Tue)
6:00-8:00 pm IST
7/ Generating Claims and Analysing them Apr 02 ’26 (Thu)
6:00-8:00 pm IST
8/ Argumentation Practice  Apr 04 ’26 (Sat)
6:00-8:00 pm IST
9/ Building and Delivering Rebuttal Apr 07 ’26 (Tue)
6:00-8:00 pm IST
10/ Rebuttal Practice Apr 09 ’26 (Thu)
6:00-8:00 pm IST
11/ WSDC Debate Tournament Apr 11 ’26 (Sat)
TBA

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Why should you attend?

As with all ISDS programmes, this is a great gateway to learning to communicate in a structured manner from some of India and the world’s best. However, this programme is unique in 5 ways:

  • This is ISDS’ only integrated programme for junior students – concepts from across our workshops are interwoven to make this programme to give students the flexibility to apply the communication and debate skills they learn in any setting
  • This programme simulates a competition environment in a safe space for the students in the final module to give them their first taste of competitive debating similar to internationally acclaimed tournaments
  • Each trainer works with a small batch of students (~12) to maximise personal attention and absorption of feedback
  • The best performers at the Young Learners’ Academy receive a direct invitation to later rounds of our selection process for the Indian National Debate Squad, and access to exclusive content Masterclasses
  • Attendees with 100% attendance enter a wider ISDS student community channel where they can connect with other students from across the country to learn more about debate and practice
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Registration Details

  • Dates: 17 March – 11 April, 2026 (Tue, Thu & Sat)
  • Duration: 11 days
  • Timings: 6:00 PM – 8:00 PM IST
  • Location: Online over Zoom
  • Eligibility: School students in grades 7 & 8 studying in India
  • Cost per student: Rs. 15,000/-
  • Team discounts only apply for students applying in teams of 3 (Team need not be from the same school):  Rs. 40,500/- (Rs 13,500/- per student)

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