Our debate this half term was inspired by the Euros.
‘Do professional footballers get paid too much?’
The session began as always with a discussion about what a debate is and what rules we might need in place to ensure that our debate runs smoothly. We looked at our British Values poster and discussed ‘Respect and Tolerance’. During our debate we agreed that everyone’s opinions would be listened to (whether we agree with them or not), and as a group we would respect each other. Our debate question had no wrong or right answer.
The children got into two groups (for and against), discussed their ideas, and decided which ones they should use to get their views across. Once we started our debate the children took turns to speak and respond creating some interesting discussions, with some children confidently challenging their peers and swaying their opinion. The debate was really interesting with lots of good points made, comparing job responsibility with the wages received. The children approached this topic in such a mature manner.
Those children that could not attend the club left their vote at the two voting stations in the KS1 corridor.
Here are some of the comments made during the debate. What do you think?
“It is not fair if other people don’t get this money but work just as hard.”
“If you are a professional footballer you must be really good and you deserve that money.”
“Football is fun and they are getting paid for having fun. It’s not fair on other people who are doing jobs that they don’t enjoy.”
“It’s just a job like any other job.”
“I think careers should get more money than footballers because they look after people.”
“Yes because they have to save their money for when they don’t play anymore.”
“If they train for a long time they deserve that money.”