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Dr George Gross

Chepstow House School - 10th & 12th and 17th & 19th September 2024

Updated: Sep 25



It was great to begin our Debating & Interview clubs at Chepstow House School – we were delighted with the talent and potential of the groups.

In the first two weeks we will be doing an introduction to debating and public speaking. This week we turned to debating structure and our skill of the week how to build a proposition argument and the best use of body language during a debate or interview setting. We will continue to review these skills over the coming weeks.

For warm-up questions we looked at (with 'Why'/justification absolutely crucial):

(i) What was the Highlight from your holidays? &

(ii) What are your goals for the new academic year?

(iii) (The philosophical question) 'How do you know the moon is not made of cheese?'

From holidays abroad, to time with friends and family and sporting adventure we heard a wide variety of tremendous highlights, but crucially with the all important ‘because’. We are looking to build on the point of supporting an argument with justification: evidence, stories and in time rhetorical questions.

Goals for the term included exam and school success, piano grades, sporting progress and more reading and focus. We will pick up on goals in more detail next week.

Each week we aim to cover a Newsround (and we encourage the groups to be as aware of news and the world around them as possible, we recommend for example First News, Newsround, The Week Junior). This week we touched on: 

 

  • The US Presidential Election

  • The Kamala Harris & Donald Trump debate 

  • The Olympics & Paralympics 

  • The International Space Station


Our debates covered the motions:


(i) Should the Olympic Rings stay on the Eiffel Tower?; & Should the Mayor of Paris need to consult her constituents?


(ii) Are there too many exams? (following a BBC/OCR article/review)


(iii) This House believes we still need coins? & Will the coinage help raise awareness for endangered UK wildlife?


A very impressive start to the term - well done all!

 

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