Another excellent session with our Knightsbridge School debating & interview club. This week we tackled summary speaking and the skill of concluding a speech or debate, along with the mock interview question: 'what is your favourite hobby?' and a round-up of news from the week. Our session finished with the central debate: 'This House would make Mathematics and English compulsory until the age of 18'.
The group began by looking at the interview question and here we targeted as much detail and structure as possible. It was great to hear of so many different hobbies and skills from across the floor, from chess to reading and tennis amongst others.
The group also presented on news stories and we would again encourage all to focus on reading material from First News, The Week Junior and any daily news briefing they have at home. We discussed inter alia HS2, Rishi Sunak in the news, Climate Change and natural disasters, not forgetting football results too!
We then turned to our main debating topic, splitting into Proposition and Opposition.
Whilst very few voted in favour of compulsory Mathematics and English for A-level, the majority remained undecided after both tellings. All could see the merit of improving standards, but the opposition battled relentlessly and effectively in arguing that these two subjects should not jeopardise or denigrate the rest of the curriculum. The proposition made much use of the low standard of Mathematics in the UK (as a global position) and the need for the subject in so many professions.
We will continue to work on endings and summaries in our forthcoming sessions. Well done both sides on a hard fought debate!
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