Our first Debating Society meeting this term tackled the timely issue of the opportunities and challenges of communication in a social distancing world.

Led by Miss Gordon, the group explored how you might currently feel even more nervous ‘speaking up’ in lessons that are on Google Meet compared to lessons held in a classroom.  We discussed how we could ‘reframe’ nerves: they show we care and are trying something new and important! In a remote learning/ online world, we talked about the increased importance of pace and tone when communicating with others.

We played the ‘Popcorn’ game, with everyone speaking unscripted on different topics that ‘popped up’ on screen. This was an opportunity to practise controlling and varying our pace when speaking. Dunya showed real skill in slowing her pace in order to emphasise the importance of mobile phones in keeping each other connected. Ishita slowed down her pace to clearly outline why learning cooking is an important life skill. Niamh increased her pace when listing different New Years’ resolutions (for humorous effect), before slowing down to explore why they do not all last!

In another round of ‘Popcorn’, we practised altering the tone and volume of our voices, to ensure we are always clearly understood and to pique interest, when not ‘face to face’. All the girls put their inhibitions to one side in experimenting with voice techniques, whilst talking on topics including: age restrictions on films, social media platforms, learning second languages, and volunteering. Raising or lowering the pitch helped us all create our own ‘hooks’ to engage each other in potential assembly topics! Miss Gordon was incredibly impressed by the willingness and creativity in speaking off topic and ‘on the spot’. They included interesting examples to support their ideas, and devised innovative rhetorical statements to engage each other in their topics.

DebSoc is on 1-1:30pm every Monday for Years 7-9. New members are welcome anytime, with no commitment to attending weekly! Full details are on the extra-curricular noticeboard, with a link to our google meet. Hopefully see you next week for more games and tips!