'On Tuesday 11th February, a group of Year 12 students were invited to attend a debating workshop at Bellevue’s Head Office in London, alongside two other Bellevue Schools: Farlington School and Ealing Independent College.
Ms Seamark met us at Basingstoke station to give us our tickets, although as Sixth Form students, we were allowed to make our own way to and from the event.
On arrival at Bellevue Head Office we enjoyed some ice-breaker activities to get to know the students from the other schools who we would be working closely in groups with throughout the day. The workshop was being run by Debbie Newman, of Noisy Classroom. She was the English National Debating champion and previously president of the Cambridge Union Society. Debbie talked us through the importance of debating skills, being able to present your opinions clearly but also to listen carefully to what we say to one another.
We did a series of fun group activities including quick fire rounds – where she would shout out a topic and we had to quickly reply with counter arguments. We also held longer debates on topics such as ‘should the UK still have a monarchy?’ and ‘should the UK ban all petrol/diesel cars by 2030?’ We also practiced interrupting speakers with a Point of Information and had to learn how to counter arguments quickly and handle disruption.
We all enjoyed having the opportunity to work with students from the other schools, and having a chance to develop our debating skills. Overall, we had a brilliant day in London, thank you Bellevue!'
Written by Flo, Year 12 Student.