Students at Saint Paul’s were excited to take part in a speed debating event as part of UK Youth Parliament Oracy, an annual event, spreading the word about what Parliament is, what it does and how you can get involved.
The event was designed to develop confidence, improve speaking and listening attainment and enhance leadership and teamwork skills in young people.
The event, hosted at Saint Paul’s, included local Councillors and other Manchester City Council representatives and focused on topics and areas of interest to young people.
During the event, all the students employed high level skills in terms of creative thinking and formation of content to argue their views, formal and ambitious linguistic choices, a range of rhetorical devices as well as effective debating strategies and listening skills as they offered rebuttal to their opponent’s points and interjected with points of information and clarity.
Mr Byron Stanley, Lead Practitioner for English and Oracy Lead at Saint Paul’s, explained: “This is was an exciting opportunity for our students to get involved in the democratic process and to have their voices valued! Events such as this form part of the school’s commitment to oracy as a key life skill to build students’ confidence and ability to find their voice to articulate and discuss ideas in a safe space ready for life beyond school.
Many students are very nervous about speaking in public, especially in front of their peers. The school’s Oracy programme is designed to address those fears and to raise the students’ confidence. We want them to find their own voice and have an opinion whilst thinking creatively and learning to view alternatives from a range of angles.
We took a cross-phase approach with each group for the table debates being made up of a mixture of Year 10 and Year 8 students in order to increase student confidence when interacting diverse audiences and seeking to find consensus.
The students were extremely enthusiastic and enjoy addressing issues that affect them, their communities and the wider world. I am sure that they will particularly benefit from developing their key listening, thinking, exploring and articulation skills.”
“This event provided an introduction to public speaking, techniques for constructing arguments and an overview of the British Parliamentary style of debating,” explained Mr Mike Whiteside, Headteacher at Saint Paul’s. “The ability to speak confidently in public is an invaluable skill that we think all young people would benefit from. The sessions were fun and engaging, covering a variety of issues including current affairs and topical news stories. The sessions helped our students gain confidence and it was wonderful to see several timid youngsters develop into articulate and active participants.”