American School in London - 10th April

This week we started our session by discussing what students had read or seen in the news. Much of our chat focussed around what was happening in the Middle East, with some thoughtful comments made. All acknowledged the importance of considering other peoples views and to be wary of everything on social media. Politics was clearly the theme of the week as we then went on to discuss the elections in Turkey and even the trainers that Rishi Sunak was wearing in an interview.

A mock interview question of "can you describe yourself in three words" was then put to the group with a range of answers, leading onto a conversation about qualities needed to make a good leader. We then looked at whether kindness was a necessary quality in someone such as the Prime Minister/President, with some great opinions said, bringing in examples from around the world.

Our main debate this week was looking at whether staff working for train companies should strike and this led to heated discussion, with a variety of fantastic points. Rida performed particularly well here, earning her the title of 'Prime Minister of the week'. All ultimately agreed that strike action should be the last resort and some opinions changed when we altered the notion to focus on firefighters. During this time, we also looked back at what we had focussed on previously with body language and started to think about clear structure to our arguments. 

We ended the session spending a short time thinking about whether money made you happy. Some great comments were made, however ultimately it was agreed that money made you happier if not necessarily happy.