Our debating activities aim to increase primary school pupils’ confidence about offering their opinions and encourage them to consider the views of others.
Primary Debating Competition
We are so excited to be running our hugely successful Primary Debating Competition for the second year running.
The competition is a city-wide debating competition due to take place in the spring term. If you would like to take part, you will be sent an information pack, providing lesson plans and resources on debating, which will explain how to run the initial rounds of the competition in school. Schools can enter up to 3 teams of two children to take part as you wish with some schools in the past running in-house competitions to select the winning pairs.
We can also come in and run an introductory session for your pupils on a Friday afternoon in the second half of the autumn term or first half of the spring term if you feel this would be helpful.
The next stage of the competition will be held at King Edward’s School on Friday afternoons in the spring term, with teams of pupils from schools throughout Birmingham competing in heats. The winning teams from these heats will then compete against each other until four teams remain.
To register a debating team for your school, please complete the form below.
Primary Debating Competition - register your interest
“The children and I had a wonderful time during round one of the debating competition. Everyone at King Edward’s was so friendly and welcoming. It was a brilliant experience and the children were buzzing afterwards. We really loved all the games too (and they gave me lots of great ideas for activities for our debate club in the future). It’s been lots of fun and an invaluable experience.“
Primary School teacher
Introductory Debating Workshop
Our Debating Workshop aims to increase primary school pupils’ confidence about offering their opinions and encourage them to consider the views of others.
Run on a Friday afternoon by our pupils at the primary school, the one-hour workshop introduces the concept of formal debating to the schoolchildren. Working in small groups, the children are given practice in public speaking skills and challenging others’ points of view, and are encouraged to back up their arguments with factual evidence. The workshop can be delivered to two classes simultaneously and is best suited to year 5 or 6.
“I just wanted to feedback that the two KES pupils who visited us on Friday were outstanding! They were incredibly organised and professional and adaptable! I was extremely impressed.”
School feedback on our Debating Workshops