Debating

We provide regular opportunities for children in Year one and beyond to take part in debating. Classes hold a half termly debating session over the year to enable children to understand the idea of debates and to teach children how to improve their speaking and listening skills. With younger children this could be as simple as posing a simple question and asking them if they agree or disagree and asking them to say why. Older children learn to craft teir viewpoints, put them across articulately and persuade their classmates to vote for them!

Our two class debates for the Autumn term are:

- Should children choose their own bedtimes?

- Should we have a school uniform? 

We will be asking our Mini Leaders to get ideas of future debate ideas for the rest of the year from their classes and voting as a school which ones we want to try. 

There are of course also lots of natural opportunities for debate throughout our curriculum that we exploit wherever possible. 

This useful article outlines how debating can benefit your child and gives some ideas of debates you could hold at home: 

https://www.theschoolrun.com/how-debating-can-benefit-your-child