How to let students argue about real politics and stay inside impartiality guidance.
Young people want to talk about politics. Many teachers would rather they did it somewhere else.
The risks are real: a heated room, a complaint from a parent, an accusation of bias. So political education gets reduced to a worksheet. Students learn how a bill becomes law and never practise what democracy asks of them, which is to argue with people they disagree with and still share a room with them afterwards.
No one who leads a discussion is truly neutral. The position I teach is to be on the side of dialogue. You don’t argue a case, but you do protect the conditions that let everyone else argue theirs. This session shows staff how, using techniques from theatre and from rhetoric, which has been teaching people to argue for two thousand years.
The session is built around the situations that make teachers steer away from politics altogether.
How to answer a direct question about your own views without taking a side, and without sounding evasive.
When the whole class is on one side, the other side still needs a voice, and it shouldn’t have to be yours.
Telling heat, which is worth working with, from harm, which needs stopping, and knowing what to do about each.
Practical activities first, rationale second. The wider discussion principles are in Leading Difficult Discussions, and the two sessions work well as a pair.
“Some positions are wrong. When someone denies another person’s humanity, you intervene directly – that’s not negotiable.”
Practical links to oracy framework readiness and the civic strand of enrichment.
Citizenship, drama, English and PSHE departments; heads of sixth form; trust CPD leads.
| Format | One school | Clusters |
|---|---|---|
| Twilight (60–90 min) | from £350 | £500 per school for a series of three |
| Half day | from £500 | Group rates available |
| Full INSET day | from £850 | From £500 per school for two; £400 per school for three or more |
Delivered in your school, anywhere in the UK. Travel charged at cost. Prices exclude VAT.
Drama games for statutory primary citizenship, for teachers who have never taught it.
Four practical principles for discussions that won’t start, won’t stop, or turn personal.
Students choose a local issue and devise a short piece of political theatre about it.