This was another impressive session with our Knightsbridge School debating and interview club.
As ever we began with skills, with a focus on rebuttal and active listening as well as how to tackle an unseen image, text or other source.
In this instance we used Holbein's famous portrait of Henry VIII. The key here was to have a go at making point, explaining items/details in the image, without necessarily centering on right/wrong answers. We had a super discussion looking at possible reasons as to why Henry is depicted without a crown.
We then turned to our warm-up interview style question:
(i) What do you find most challenging at school?
Here our focus was to turn this into a positive, i.e. the challenge of a subject, sport or wider activity is the reason for enjoying it, e.g. problem solving in Mathematics or winning matches in Sport, vocabulary with a language, or taking on the challenge of the stage for Drama or a Poetry reading competitions.
(ii) Is it better to be good or to be happy?
This philosophical style question saw the group split at both tellings. Being in the right headspace with good mental health and a happy wellbeing was seen as important to being good. The golden rule and helping one's neighbour (with reference to the Good Samaritan) was also raised in this fascinating discussion/debate.
Our newsround took in:
Hurricane Helene
The US vice-presidential TV debate
The growing conflict in the Middle East
The War in Ukraine
Gifts/Donations to Downing Street
We then turned to our set-piece debate on the motion:
(1) Are ticket prices too high for music/sporting events (e.g. Taylor Swift world tours):
Here the voting remained relatively split throughout. Market forces as the key driving point (supply/demand) held sway at the first telling, but this was rejected at the second, as it was felt pricing would in the end put people off watching musical events and sporting occasions.
We ended with a discussion on the role of the education secretary and a key priority for each speaker if they were in charge of education. Answers included:
More Science and Technology, Sport, Mathematics, Languages, Art & Drama, Debating and Music opportunities.
Looking forward to next week!
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