Two special debating events have been held at Monmouth School for Girls this term, inspiring “fantastic” discussions and “passionate advocates” of ideas.

The two events – an after-school debating workshop and a lunchtime Skype seminar – were held in addition to the weekly Socrates Debate Club meetings.

Explaining the events, Mr Whately, Head of Ethics and Philosophy at Monmouth School for Girls, said: “In the debating workshop we had two teams with a mix of Year 12 and Year 8 students.  They were given the motion “this house believes that tigers are better than humans.”

Students had to analyse two documents:  a press release from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, and a report from the World Wildlife Fund on the government of India’s work on tiger conservation.  The result was a formal debate with proposition and opposition, speakers and summarisers.

Mr Whately added: “The contributions were well-informed and nuanced, with fantastic discussion around ideas of human agency and the role of individual species within wider ecosystems – with an excellent philosophical perspective on David Hume and causation from Nick. “

The Skype seminar was with Marrium Khan, who works for Outreach at Lady Margaret Hall College at the University of Oxford. Mr Whately explained: “It was fantastic for the girls to hear such an eloquent advocate of university education talking about the value of what they do in debating; it really gave them a bigger perspective on their lunch time club!

“I hope it will inspire them to keep debating, discussing and arguing as outspoken and passionate advocates of the ideas they care about.”