A great session with our St Andrew's debating and interview club, with plenty of discussion, debate and some very thoughtful responses in each section.
Our skills of the week looked at rebuttal, how to respond in a debate, how to criticize a point with impact, whilst retaining politeness too.
For our warm-up question we asked (with 'Why'/justification absolutely crucial) a philosophical question:
(i) Do animals think?
With the group all possessing pets at home - this was an apt question and the majority supported the idea of animal sentience beyond just instinct. We also discussed the poignant war memorial to animals in London that died in conflict.
We then turned to a Newsround focussing on:
Sporting news
Sign Language
Donations for politicians
The widening conflict in the Middle East
Our debates covered the motions:
(i) 'Should politicians be allowed to receive donations?' - following the headlines in the last week surrounding Sir Keir Starmer and members of the cabinet
(ii) 'Should people work from home?' - on the back of Government and Amazon business announcements (to the contrary of each other)
(iii) 'This House would prefer a 4 day school week?'
The group remained relatively divided across the first two votes, with a healthy amount of agreement and disagreement. The 4 day school week was, however, rejected unanimously, but the proposition nevertheless argued superbly and convincingly. We are looking to encourage the ability to argue from a side you do not agree with, and today was particularly impressive.
In the context of political conference season, we also looked at an unseen - seeing if students could recognise the deputy prime minister, and if they had that role, what would they prioritise?
Answers included inter alia: finance, supporting the PM, health, culture/sport, and pensioners
Very well done all!
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