In this round, the advocacy groups will need to argue that their policy should be selected by the government. They will have to argue not only that they are better than the others at something, but also explain why that means that overall, they are best choice for spending. For example, someone defending ‘more nurses’ might suggest that ‘saving more lives’ is more important than ‘boosting the economy most’. Become part of a 5,000+ community which believes that speaking and listening skills are central to personal fulfilment and cultural understanding When a student agrees with the statement, they should stand up and ‘cross the circle’, finding a new seat from one which has been vacated. The facilitator should also take a seat and the student left standing then begins the next round with a statement of their own. From our public speaking competitions to our in-school workshops like Discover Your Voice , we know the importance of oracy in the classroom. If you’re teaching students debating, you probably need to find ways to engage them before diving in. Here’s a list of tried-and-tested debating games that our facilitators and mentors use in primary and secondary school classrooms to get students thinking. All the best debating games for students 1) If I Ruled the World

Have four to six student volunteers come to the front of the class. Each one should choose a person that they will play during this game. You may want to restrict them using a theme, e.g. ‘famous people from history’ or ‘characters from Harry Potter. Get the students to form a seated circle. There should be one fewer seat than the number of participants. Standing in the middle, give a statement, starting ‘Cross the circle if…’ that students can either agree or disagree with. As the rules are being learnt, start with simple verifiable facts such as ‘… if you have brown hair’ or ‘… if your name starts with a letter in the first half of the alphabet’. One-off or regular donations are vital to our work, helping us ensure that young people everywhere have the oracy skills they need to thrive Round 1 – In this round, each group will write and deliver a short speech (no longer than one minute) about why their proposed spending is best within a certain category. So, for example, those advocating ‘spending on more nurses’ might want to argue that their proposal would ‘save most lives’; students arguing for ‘providing increased city centre parking’ might claim that their proposal would ‘boost the economy most’. While they don’t need to compare with every other proposal, they should be comparative with at least some. You may wish to begin by making a mind-map of possible ‘trump’ categories on the board.You can immediately decide a winner by a vote after Round 2. If you prefer, you can select the top two proposals and have a final round where they must argue directly against each other in a final pair of speeches. 7) Sales Game

Set the scene: The government has announced that there is a million pounds of extra money available to be spent in the local region. Students will represent different advocacy groups with proposals on how to spend this money. Each student will give a 30-second explanation of why their character should be allowed to stay in the balloon, using a point and an explanation. After these arguments, the rest of the students should vote on who should be thrown out of the balloon. This can be repeated until only one person remains in the balloon. Set the scene: all these people are in a balloon, but it is leaking. To save themselves, they will have to throw someone overboard!

We’re hugely grateful to those who volunteer their time in helping to organise and run ESU programmes and competitions. Find out how you could help The game should then proceed around the circle until all the students have had a turn. This is one of the best debating games for beginners. 2) Cross the Circle if… Give students a statement and ask them to give all the reasons why they disagree with it. Make sure that the statements are absolute but difficult to disagree with. When each group has a winner, you can have a further round in front of the class to find an overall winning object. 8) Balloon Debate

Divide the students into small groups, and give each pair of groups a ‘neutral’ statement (e.g. ‘London is a big city’, or ‘Birds can fly’). Ask one team in each pair to present the statement to the group so it sounds good (‘London is a big, multicultural, thriving city’), and the other to present it so it sounds bad (‘London is a big, dangerous, noisy city’). 5) Stranded on a Desert Island Round 2 – Each proposal may be best at something, but this doesn’t yet allow us to choose which is best overall. Have students form small groups. Give each student an object (e.g. a pen, a pair of sunglasses, a phone charger). Within the small groups, students should convince others that they should ‘buy’ their object. Stand in a circle with the students. Explain that the game works by each student stating: ‘If I ruled the world…’ and finishing the statement. The student to the left should question the statement with: ‘Why?’ The initial student will then explain why they would do this.