Mar 242 min read

The Socratic Club - 24th March

Our final sessions of the Lent term saw a superb array of debates and contributions from across our Junior and Senior groups. Our skill of the week looked at summary speaking and how to end a debate with panache. We also focussed on key skills for debating competitions - from rhetorical questions to rebuttal.

Our warm up question asked:

'What is your favourite holiday destination and why?'

This saw contrasting options from Staycations and the Countryside, to further afield examples such as China and Morocco. Food, language, relaxation and culture weighed heavily on the selections, along with the chance to catch up with family and friends.

Our newsround saw topics raised from the war in Ukraine, to the conflict in Gaza, Space exploration, the terrorist attack in Moscow, The Man in the Iron Tube and Volcanic eruptions in Iceland.

We also returned to the question: 'If you could produce a movie for cinema what would it be about and why?'

This saw a range of options mentioned, but with particular focus on documentaries including: Human Evolution and Charles Darwin, Syria post ISIS, Ancient Egypt and a WWII series.

On the back of Putin's 5th term election victory, we asked 'what should people do in a democracy if you do not have a choice?'

From active opposition to spoiling ballot papers and keeping one's head down, we had a wide discussion on the complexity of such a position.

Our central debate asked whether:

(i) 'This House would prefer to live in the City or the Countryside?'

Here, voting was in favour of the City across our groups, however, justification for Countryside time dominated holiday expectations. Space, scenery, better air quality were all given as key reasons. In favour of the City, we saw job opportunities, education, and better healthcare and technology (wifi etc.).

As has been custom during the sessions, each side then swapped to allow for proposition and opposition work.

The second motion turned to the question of whether:

(ii) 'Sporting ticket prices should be cheaper to improve accessibility'.

Debating here saw an effort to find a via media and each group wanted a range of pricing options, to make sure that sporting events raised the revenue to pay for players and facilities, but at the same time allowed greater accessibility.

Well done all on another excellent term of debating! Much looking forward to catching up post the Easter break.