This was another great week with our American School of London debating and interview clubs.
Our skills of the week focussed on how to tackle/manage public speaking nerves and how best to use Points of Information - an important skill for debating competitions.
For our warm-up question we asked (with 'Why'/justification absolutely crucial):
(i) What is your favourite hobby?
This took in reading, travel, chess, musical instruments, painting, riding, rugby, football and swimming amongst other pursuits.
(ii) We also explored what qualifies as art? / Who decides what art is? / is beauty in the eye of the beholder?
This led to a fascinating discussion - from contemporary to renaissance examples and questions of creativity or message.
We then turned to a Newsround focussing on:
The US Presidential Election
Keir Starmer's US and Italian visits
The War in Ukraine
Floods in Eastern Europe
Our central debates covered the motions:
(i) 'This House would ban junk food online advertising and television advertising (before 9pm)'
- here we saw an excellent debate with jobs, finance and practicality battling against the importance of health for children and adults as a whole. The majority rejected the motion in favour of freedom of choice. In the context of health we also looked at an unseen - seeing if students could recognise the health secretary, and if they had that role, what would they prioritise in the UK system? Prevention or Cure?
(ii) 'This House would ban phones in school' (following a recent decision by one of England's largest academy trusts)
- having split into teams we saw voting begin move against a ban. This remained at the second telling. Many felt phones were useful to learning if managed well, and helpful for safety when going to and from schools, and even in a school setting (fire emergencies etc.). Those against felt they were distractions from day-to-day learning. This was an excellent debate - well done all.
Looking forward to next week!
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