Idea: UCL Union Debating Society: School Workshop Day

 
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  • Created on: 29 Jan 2008
  • Idea status: Underway
  • Town: Morden, Greater London
 

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What it's all about

Having seen the power of debate to engage youngsters at the Philip Lawrence Award day in December 2007, at the UCL Union Debating Society we are keen to use our personnel to provide practical lessons in debating and public speaking to Year 9 pupils. In November 2007, we held the inaugural UCL School’s Cup and saw how successful the British Parliament form of debating was with school pupils. However, we were conscience of the school composition on the day {grammar, private sector} and would therefore like to take this opportunity to introduce the scheme to schools that have never had any exposure to this arena. We would hope to offer our services during the day for individual schools {of around 18 pupils per group} on the UCL campus to engage in various debating and public speaking workshops as well as offering a tour of the UCL campus. The aim would be to have these children leave with a set of practical skills and perhaps igniting a passion for debating.

What's needed to make it a reality

We will be making room requests from the central body.

On the financial front, we are after a grant to provide a £4 food voucher for the children attending, to use in the UCL canteen. This would equate to roughly £92 (on a day with 18 children, a staff member from the school and four UCL Union debaters). We are aimly to run the project over three weeks with 7-9 day sessions.

We will also be requesting financial assistance to subsidies travel for a school from Suffolk (King Edward VI Upper) to attend. We piloted the scheme/workshop at the school last summer and see fit to return the favour.

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Comments

  • Avatar Nadia Cole 11:01, 30 January 2008 This is a great idea which is set to ignite a passion for debating - effective communication alongwith the skills of negotiation and persuasion are empowering for young people. I'll send you an email to set up a time to meet up and discuss this further.
    Best wishes,
    Nadia Cole
    UCL Voluntary Services Development Worker, VSU, 2nd Floor, UCL Bloomsbury, 15 Gordon Street T: 020 7679 2352
  • Avatar Helen 13:34, 01 February 2008 This sounds like a really good idea bringing the opportunity to a more diverse spectrum of the community. I wish you every success with this project.
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