Setting up a society

Organisation techniques

There is no right or wrong way to run a debating society. Some schools split their debating society in two - for example, juniors (S1-S3) could meet on a Wednesday lunchtime, seniors (S4 and above) could meet on a Thursday lunchtime. Other schools have a debating society that isn’t split on age levels and all the speakers compete against each other throughout the year (whilst also occasionally having a juniors event or a seniors event). However, if a debating society is very big and pupils are not getting a chance to speak very often, it might make sense to split the society into juniors and seniors.

Assembly debates

One way to attract attention to the debating society and publicise it to the wider school community is to host a short example debate in assembly. Even if this is unfeasible due to time constraints, mentioning the debating society in assembly is a good way to publicise the society.

'Staff versus student' debates

When the society is more established, a fun way to promote debating is to hold a 'staff versus student' debate. A good way to do this is to pick a fun motion, for example ‘This House would replace teachers with robots’, and to team teachers up with pupils. This could be done as a showpiece lunchtime debate, an after-school event for parents or during assembly.

This sort of debate brings a new audience to the debating society and helps ensure that the debating society is central to the school’s life.

Gala debates

Some schools organise a gala debate at some point during the year. This can be either an afternoon event or an evening debate where guest speakers (journalists, councillors, MSPs, MPs, advocates or local celebrities) are invited to debate at the school. These can either be guest speaker only debates or they can pair the guest speakers with members of the debating society.

If these debates take place in the evening, they can attract audiences of members of the public, parents and pupils - a little like a drama production or musical production would. Gala or guest speaker debates are a great way to interact with the local community and to show off the debating society.

Alternatively, the debating society can hold a ‘Question Time’-style event with local MSPs, MPs or councillors.