Debate Hub

Debate Hub, the cornerstone of our partnership work, continues to empower hundreds of young people to find their voice.

Debate Hub was established in 2018 with the aim of fostering high quality debating, discussion and public speaking at South Hampstead and in hundreds of other schools across the UK. As well as hosting dozens of competitions and coaching sessions, Debate Hub also provides a fantastic array of resources for partner school teachers to build oracy skills for their own pupils. The Debate Hub website now features over 100 downloadable resources, nearly 50 video lessons, and over 200 suggested debate topics alongside lesson plans and games packs that can be adapted to pupils’ abilities. Teachers can also tap into the Debate Hub podcast – available on all major platforms – and sign up to regular newsletters, to help make debating and public speaking as engaging and accessible as possible.

Over the past academic year, 98 schools and over 1400 pupils have entered our various competitions – over two thirds are from state schools. On the first day of the summer holidays, we ran the UK’s biggest state school debating competition, with over 200 students taking part and £1000 worth of prizes (kindly sponsored by Rangoonwala Foundation) awarded to our winning teams.

Debate Hub is available free of charge to all our state partner schools; it is funded entirely by generous donors and through proceeds from corporate training workshops. If you or your company are interested in expert coaching sessions run by our outstanding Debate Hub Director, and would like to support more young people across the UK to find their voice, find out more here.