Debate Topics

We have provided an extensive list of debate topics to get you started. Motions always start with ‘This house…’ which really just means ‘We, the team who are speaking…’ Motions are tagged to give an idea of what levels they are best for. Look out for our ‘Debate Hub favourite’ tag!

This House, as a Parent, would actively instil a value of disobeying authority in children

This House Supports strong norms encouraging children to highly prioritise the pursuit of excellence in competitive hobbies (e.g. debating, traditional sports, music, e-sports)

This house would abolish tuition fees at university

This house would not require parental consent before teaching sex education

This house would force universities to lower their entry requirements for pupils from disadvantaged backgrounds

This house would ban home schooling

This house would carry out random drug tests in schools

This house would ban boarding schools

This house would punish parents for the behaviour of their children

This house would allow random bag searches in schools

This house would make Physical Education compulsory in schools

This house would ban school uniforms

This house would abolish single-sex schools

This house would stream students in school according to academic ability

This house believes that teachers should publicly shame bullies in schools

This house would allow children to vote on what they are taught at school

This house believes that parents should teach children to choose friendship instead of romantic love as the primary relationship of importance in their life

This house believes that the voting age should be lowered to 16

This house believes that all educational institutions should be required to provide students with online attendance options, even after COVID-19

This house would allow the use of ChatGPT for all school work

This house would prioritise providing students in rural areas with online access to ‘top schools’’ classes over developing schools in those rural areas

This house would ban Religious Schools

This house prefers that a students’ final A level grade is based on the average performance over 2 years as opposed to a single high stake standard exam

This house would implement a 4 day working week

In areas of socioeconomic deprivation, This house would prioritise training students in vocational skills (such as being a mechanic, electrician, carpenter, etc.) as opposed to traditional academic subjects (history, language, advanced maths, etc.)

This house would give schools significant leeway on what they teach

This house prefers a world where the norm is to pursue higher education in your early to mid twenties rather than late teens

This house believes Academic Scholarships should be based purely on economics status

This house believes teachers should be allowed to express political opinions in class

This house believes in countries where firearms are legal and widespread, high school students should be taught how to use them

This house would replace exams with coursework

This house supports an increase in women only spaces including, but not limited to, female only tube carriages, gyms and schools

This house, as a KS3 student, would not follow news and current affairs

This house, as a talented and intelligent teenager, would not go to university

This house believes all citizens should have to pass a general knowledge test to be able to vote

This house would give more votes to young people

This house would ban private schools

This house would ban grammar schools

This house would replace exams with coursework