About this Resource

This teacher resource pack will support you in running debates in the classroom, providing suggested activities to help your students prepare for and take part in debates. The activities can be used in sequence as an entire pack, or individual activities can be used standalone.

The resources were developed as part of our Parliamentary Debate project, an archives-inspired oracy project which featured material relating to the British Civil Wars in Newcastle University’s Special Collections and Archives and the National Civil War Centre’s collections, including this 17th century pocket book. This project was funded by the National Archives. During the project, teachers took part in debate training led by oracy charity Voice21 and worked with heritage professionals and academics to plan archives-inspired activities that would develop their students’ oracy skills. A-Level students from schools in Northumberland and Nottinghamshire then visited Newcastle University and the National Civil War Centre, where they worked with primary source material related to their A-Level studies and took part in an inter-school debate.

  

Acknowledgements: Thank you to The National Archives for providing funding for this project. With special thanks to Rachel Hamersley, Professor of Intellectual History, and Dr Katherine East, Senior Lecturer in the History of Radical Ideas, at Newcastle University for their support with the development of these resources. Thank you also to the National Civil War Centre’s Learning and Engagement Team for their ideas and input. We are very grateful to staff and students from Ponteland High School (Northumberland), St Benet Biscop Catholic Academy (Northumberland), Newark Academy (Nottinghamshire), and Magnus Church of England Academy (Nottinghamshire) for taking part in our project and trying out some of these activities. Finally, thank you to Voice21 for their invaluable support, including providing some excellent debate training for the teachers taking part in this project, from which some of the suggested activities in this pack take their inspiration.