Students from Mount Clear College, Woodmans Hill Secondary College, Yuille Park Community College, Beaufort Secondary College and Phoenix exercised their critical thinking skills as they took part in more than 20 different debates.

Senior students acted as mentors for the debate participants, who ranged from grade five pupils up to year 10 students.

"Debating sets kids up for the future, helps them in everyday life and gives them better critical thinking skills," said organiser and Phoenix teacher Jade Browning.

Ms Browning organised the first event last year after Phoenix teams competed in the Royal South Street eisteddfod debating competitions and she realised there were few other competitions for schools in the area.

The interschool debating day began with debating training session workshops before an afternoon of competition.

This year's competition had more than 60 more entrants than last year, with schools reporting increased interest in debating.

"It's definitely growing and staff have reported back from other schools that the kids really enjoy it."

The biggest group were year five and six students, many of whom were making their debut as debaters.

"What was great is that some of those students who were from Woodmans Hill and Beaufort were competitors from primary schools last year," she said.

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Local businesses also got on board with more than $1300 of prizes and medals for the best speakers in each debate.

Volunteers from Ballarat South Rotary and Sebastopol/Lucas Lions also took on adjudication duties, making some tough decisions to decide who presented the best arguments.

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