SCHOOL NEWS
Debating
A
t Arnold House we have a Debating Society, inside this, we have a debating team. Last term our two teams, the junior and the senior, took part in nationwide debating competition at Haileybury School. The two Arnold House teams arrived at Haileybury where we first of all watched a workshop debate. The motion was, ‘Should children be allowed to vote from the age of eleven upwards’. The two sides were composed of Haileybury senior school students and they did a full debate which we were able to watch and ask questions from the floor. We then headed off to our respective rooms to compete in the Junior Prep School competition.
Arnold House’s first debate was against Edge Grove and the team consisted of ---- -------- -------- -------- --------- and -------- -------- The motion was - 'This House believes that daily sport should be compulsory in all schools'. We were the proposition and started the debate. The opposition put emphasis on the fact that sport is not exercise and we counteracted that by proving that too many people don’t get enough exercise and that daily sport has many health and social benefits. Our second debate was against Lyonsdown and the team was ----- --------------------- ------- and ---- -------- The motion was - 'This House would ban junk food from schools'. We were the opposition and argued that it should be allowed in schools. We focused on the fact that no one would give up junk food completely, that it would rebound with serious consequences and that it is not the main cause of obesity. They said that it is not as healthy as other food and would help to lower the obesity rates. We argued that children should be taught about balanced diets and therefore allowed to make decisions based on that knowledge.
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Then we had a delicious lunch before returning to do a third debate where Edge Grove faced off against Lyonsdown. The motion for this debate was, ‘The future is vegetarian’. For this round we were on the sidelines and we asked questions from the floor for the third speaker to answer.
Y8. During our sessions we have debated many different issues, from whether the government should fund space travel to, whether school uniforms should be enforced.
Although we won our two debates, Lyonsdown came first because of the scoring system and we followed closely behind in second place. The day before the referendum in June, the senior debaters took to assembly to debate Brexit, this allowed all pupils to hear both sides of the argument and allowed the younger boys to see how a formal debate works. The Remain team won with a majority vote from the floor. In Debating Society we discuss many different topics and the society convenes every week on a Thursday morning. The Debating club includes all years from Y5 to
We would like to thank Miss Hall who has run the Debating Society this year everyone has really enjoyed it!
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