Tackling Topics with Debating Skills

On 3rd February, four of our students had a full day of debating. After first arriving at the competition, the students had some time to get to know other teams, before playing a game called “Hot air balloon”, in which we were all assigned a famous person and had to persuade the judges that they should be allowed to stay on the balloon. This was an engaging opportunity to settle into the competition informally, warming up before the main debate, where the motion was ‘Should access to Higher Education be universal and free for all?’.

The debate competition was held at Blessed Hugh Farringdon, one of our local partnership schools, as a return invitation as part of our ongoing, valuable partnership with BFH. It provided an opportunity to further ignite students’ debating skills and continue academic challenges.

Annabel (Year 10) commented “Ever since I first joined ‘Millie & Hat’s Fryer Debate Club’ in Year Seven (debate club led by sixth form students), I’ve always enjoyed debating. Not only does it build persuasive skills which are useful in all aspects of life, it also forces you to consider perspectives you wouldn’t necessarily see the benefits of otherwise”.

Debate Clubs at Leighton Park include ‘Arguably Awesome’ for Years 7, 8 and 9 and ‘Debating Matters’ for Year 10 to 13. The clubs are co-run by Richard Duckett, Assistant head of Sixth Form and History and Politics Teacher and David Hammond, Head of Science. Richard Duckett, expressed his congratulations to the LP team: “Our students were excellent, demonstrating how far both skills and confidence have come since before Christmas.  Daisy (Year 11) won an individual award for the best researched case.  Top kudos must go to Annabel (Year 10) and Daisy for more than holding their own against Sixth Formers”.