Discover Your Voice

As the organisers of the ESU Schools Mace, the national debating championship and the founders of the phenomenally successful London Debate Challenge, the ESU is the UK's leading provider of debate training to secondary schools.

Our expertise covers all Key Stages and subject areas, and Discover Your Voice will help you develop both debate within the classroom and as an extra-curricular activity.

Secondary school CPD for teachers

Half day: £300 (exc. VAT)
Full day: £400 (exc. VAT)
both options include membership and 1 handbook per attendee.

The ESU has over a decade of experience in training teachers of all subjects and Key Stages in the use of debate, discussion and extended speech as a classroom tool.

We pride ourselves on running tightly focused training days that are interactive, stimulating and enjoyable. They focus on practical ideas for immediate use in the classroom or school debating society.

We can run a CPD session at your school for an unlimited number of teachers covering the theory and practice of debating, public speaking and other forms of persuasive spoken English as a classroom and extra curricular tool. We also explore how extended speaking fits into the National Curriculum across subjects and can satisfy key elements of the National Strategy’s Literacy Strand.

CPD – SAMPLE HALF DAY PROGRAM

10:00: Introductions.
10:10: What is debating and formal debate?
10:30: How to judge a debate/categories of assessment in debating
10:45: Break
11:00: Preparing a debate with a group
11:30: Speech writing
12:00: Teachers’ debate
12:20: Debating and the curriculum
12:30: Models for use with thirty students
12:50: Questions
1:00: Close

CPD – SAMPLE FULL DAY PROGRAM

10:00: Introductions
10:10: What is debating and formal debate?
10:30: Judging a debate/categories of assessment
11:00: Break
11:15: Debate video and chance for teacher to judge a debate
11:45: Discussion of debate video and judging.
12:00: Preparing a debate, practical and principle.
12:45: Debating and the curriculum, including models for whole class debate.
1:30: Lunch
2:00: Preparation and speech writing for teachers’ debate.
3:00: Teachers’ debates.
3:50: Questions.
4:00: Close

Dartmouth House

The headquarters of the English-Speaking Union are in Dartmouth House, an impressive 19th century mansion in Mayfair, central London.
If you would like to use this building as a venue for your workshop, CPD day or competition (subject to availability and capacity) we can arrange that for you with the building’s contract caterers, Leith’s. Any event held at Dartmouth House is subject to a 100% surcharge.

Widening participation - and saving you money!

We want Discover Your Voice to bring debating to as many schools as possible, and to encourage the growth of inter-school debating activities.

For every extra school you include in your pupil workshop or CPD day we’ll offer you a discount of 5% off the price of your session, up to a maximum of 25% off.

So bring pupils or teachers from five schools as well as your own and you could save a quarter, and benefit from dividing the remaining costs between the participating schools.

This offer applies to individual schools only, not to local authority or similar bookers.

Contact us at mail@discoveryourvoice.co.uk or on 020 7529 1550 for more information or to make a booking.