Welcome to another year at the EABJM Debate Club ! The Debate Club was created some years ago by Mrs.Godard and numbered 8 students; the club has been growing steadily ever since and our current membership is 85. For the past two years we have attended major international conferences in order to give students the opportunity to put into action the debating skills they have learned over the months. These conferences are: The Harvard Model United Nations The Chicago Model United Nations, the Paris Model United Nations and the Harvard Model Congress Europe. We usually participate in three a year. These are in November, December and roughly at the end of April. Further details of all these conferences are posted as and when information becomes available. Also your child will be bringing home forms and requests for authorisation and cheques.

HOW DOES THE DEBATE CLUB WORK? Each group, (corresponding to a grade/year), meets once a week for about an hour. A register is taken to check that attendance is regular. For each group there are two senior students and myself, (Mrs. Brown English teacher), present. The job of the senior students is to lead, teach and support the younger or less experienced debaters. Each of the senior students has attended Debate Club for many years as well as having participated in numerous international conferences, such as Model United Nations or Model Congress. They are therefore very experienced and extremely dedicated.

I am present to ensure that all the basic rules of debating are adhered to, such as listening politely, not interrupting and generally behaving with appropriate decorum. My role is also to give guidance as to topics for debate and make sure that the skills required are being learned. In addition I organise our attendance at the 3 conferences we go to.
I believe that this ?recipe? works very well, as younger students are very motivated to achieve the standards set by their peers.

INNOVATION 5ème students This year we added a 5ème debate group in the summer term to give the younger students the opportunity to try out their skills. We had 6 permanent members and others who swelled our numbers to 8 from time to time! The students said they enjoyed themselves, so this year we are going to open up the Debate Club to 5ème students as from September.

WHEN DOES THE DEBATE CLUB MEET? We will only be able to give days and times when we find out what the new time-table looks like. Updates will be on the website, but also on the notice board in the library, so prospective members must keep their eyes open. We will start the week beginning 18th September.