Session Six - Saturday 3rd March

ESIP aims to help our students develop new skills and support them with the important practical skills in life so what better than to teach them how to argue more effectively?

Mr Goswami and Miss Pellegrini teamed up to lead two groups in an introduction to BP (British Parliamentary Debating). We learned how to structure a debate, how to make and rebut points and developed our confidence in speaking in front of groups. There was really no place to hide today as all the girls had to contribute responses in front of their group and even the slightly shy ones spoke up.

To warm things up ahead of the final big debate we played a number of games. First of these was the ‘Where Do You Stand’, literally standing to one side of the room or the other based on whether they agree or disagree. The girls then had to ‘defend’ their position. ‘Motions’ included banning homework or violent video games and taxing junk food. Although it probably is best to tax junk food eaten whilst playing violent video games at the same time as doing homework.

Next up was the Balloon Debate. Five pupils volunteered to take on a persona and tried to persuade the others, by means of a two minute speech, why they should not be thrown out of a sinking balloon. The rest of the class then had to vote on who to save!  The five personas included Barack Obama, Nelson Mandela, Michael Jackson and Simon Cowell. Suffice to say that Mandela survived at least one balloon despite someone voting that he ought to be thrown out because he’s the oldest and most likely to die next anyway. 

In the Alley Debate we were given a motion and had to face each other in rows. We had a volunteer who would move towards the line (For [in proposition] or Against [in opposition]) depending on persuasive the argument was. Suffice to say the further the debate went on the harder it was to come up with responses but the girls did very well and all contributed. This was also an exercise in taking risks – making a point you might not be 100% confident on and being prepared to be challenged and develop a better argument.

As part of the learning we watched some world class debates and learned about what makes these debaters successful and what techniques we can use in both school and everyday life. We learned how to structure a point and what PEEL was – Point, Explanation, Example, Link – and then practised it within a simple debate. We learned about points of information and to wrap things up we played the Alley Rebuttal Game – like the Alley Debate but we had to rebut the points our partners made.

After lunch we prepared and participated in debates around whether alcohol should be drunk on TV and on the legalisation of euthanasia. All the students participated in a debate and we had two grand finals with excellent responses and very convincing arguments.

This session was all about speaking. By the end of the day, all the students gave a speech which was creditable and worthy of competition standard for their age. The students were excellent at supporting and encouraging each other. The session was fast paced and the students were always fully engaged in the activity. There was no chance to sit back and the balloon debate in particular was very competitive.

Today demonstrated how far the girls have come since our very first ESIP session back in October. There is still some variation in individual confidence but everyone participated. The girls are able to share, apply knowledge and could talk eloquently about their emotional responses to quite personal topics. Even when they didn’t agree with the side of the argument they were asked to put forward, they made a convincing case.