Over the course of the half the Debating Society organised a number of workshops on Friday evenings, which were ran by the boys from B, C and D blocks and aimed at helping the younger boys improve their debating and public speaking skills.
During the workshops, boys were split into groups so that they could further their skills by practicing in a real debate. The size of the groups varied depending on the numbers of attendees but there were usually three or four groups with eight people in each. Whilst the boys prepared their speeches, the older pupils coached them on how to best prepare their cases, so that they would sound convincing and appealing to the judges. After the debate, during which each of the boys gave a speech of approximately five minutes, the boys received feedback regarding what they should work on in the coming weeks. The feedback included both public speaking tips, like speaking slower, as well as advice on how to structure speeches so that they are easier for people to follow.
Eager to allow everyone to participate, the groups were usually very mixed giving boys of different debating ability the opportunity to learn from each other as well as the coaches. However, as the half progressed some streaming did start to take place as one could indeed expect.
We would particularly like to thank Mr. Shirwani and Mr. Stamford-Harris for helping organise the workshops and overseeing that they run smoothly.
Daniil Filatov KS
