American School of London - Summer School July 2026

Following the success of last year, we were delighted to run a further debating and public speaking summer school programme as part of the ASL Summer School. Over a two week period we had time to focus on key skills from persuasive language to body language and the art of the rhetorical question; as well as intensive workshops with teamwork and detailed analysis to the fore.

Each group had the opportunity to spend time with experts from the legal world, creative industries and finance and to debate a range of philosophical and topical debating motions.

Debating motions included:

·         ‘This House believes that money is the key to happiness’

·         ‘This House believes there should be limits to free speech’

·         ‘This House would allow video games to be part of the Olympics’

·         ‘This House believes that Machiavelli was right – it is better for a leader to be feared than loved’

In addition to arguing over the role of AI in education and whether music is more important than sport, we looked at a series of legal cases – from crime to civil law and also spent time assessing the benefits of commercial projects and how to make the football world cup more environmentally friendly.

Contributions were outstanding from across our two groups – and it was wonderful to see each speaker grow in confidence and skill.

Very well done all!