Secondary oracy activities
Debating resources for secondary schools
- Five steps for preparing a debate with a class
- Short activities and exercises
- Top ten style tips for persuasive speaking
- Questions to ask yourself while debating
- Using an hour to prepare for a debate
- How do I speak for up to five minutes?
- Different forms of rebuttal
- Rebuttal worksheets
- Guidance for chairpersons in a debate
- Note-writing frames for 3-a-side debates
- Note-writing frames for BP (British Parliamentary) debates
Lesson Plans
- Mission to Mars – Science lesson plan
- Living near a volcano – Geography lesson plan
- Noughts and Crosses Newsroom lesson plan
- Role play for humanities teachers
- Lesson idea: Who should have the power?
- Frankenstein Argument stations
- An active-learning scheme of work comparing parliamentary debates in Westminster, Holyrood and Berlin
- Introducing debate in the Citizenship classroom
Case studies of secondary schools
Oracy videos
This House believes schools should exclude bullies
KS3 pupils (11-15 years old) from the Beacon School in Surrey debate this motion using a 3-a-side format with a floor debate. The video on..
How to prepare for a debate
Students from Clapton Girls’ Academy show us the key steps to prepare as a team for a debate, using the BP format.
This House would abandon nuclear power
Teams of 3 give 8-minute speeches and engage in rigorous analysis using the World Schools Debating Championship (WSDC) format.
This House would ban cars from city centres
Students from Clapton Girls’ Academy debate this interesting Geography motion in British Parliamentary (BP) format.
This House would lower the voting age to 12
14 year-old pupils from Bury St Edmunds debate an engaging politics motion in a 3-a-side format with floor debate.
This House believes that the Treaty of Versailles was the main cause of World War II
GCSE pupils from Hackney debate this history exam classic in a 2-a-side format with audience questions.
This House believes that it is worse to eat too much than to eat too little
Weighty arguments in our lean, mean 2-a-side format with plenty of audience questions for dessert.
This House believes that Romeo and Juliet’s parents were responsible for their children’s deaths
Two debate teams, both alike in dignity, in fair Verona, where we lay our scene …
Rebuttal tennis
The ball’s in your court, as singles and doubles players line up for some quick-witted rallies of responses.
Boxing match debate
“Roll up, roll up for the boxing match debate”, the Noisy Classroom’s big-hitter for differentiation and teamwork.
Where do you stand?
Are you on one side, or the other? Who occupies the centre ground? Are you part of a group or out on a limb?
Make a change
A quick exercise based on the timeless question, “what would you do if you could change the world?”
This House believes that we should only eat food produced in Britain
There are lots of reasons why we might decide only to eat food from our own country, and patriotism is only one of them.
This House believes that computers are better than books
Six tech-savvy and well-read primary pupils from Hackney debate this motion which is so relevant for all in education today.
This House believes that the Olympics will be good for Hackney
A great example of a topical and geographically-specific topic from 2012; what similar motions might you set?
This House believes that kids can make a big difference to the environment
As part of the Linklaters Hackney Debate Challenge, primary school pupils from the borough debated whether young people can make a difference to the environment...