In English the Second Form had their first attempt at a debate. The motion that they were debating was’ Fast Food is Good For You.’  Half the year was for this and half the year was against this statement. The boys worked in groups of six to discuss their ideas.  We then chose a first, second and third speaker from both sides to use their persuasive techniques to gain a majority vote. The floor then contributed their ideas to the topic. Both sides were incredibly persuasive and the judges were unable to choose a winning team!

Is Fast Food Good For You?

For

• Tomato sauce is the best because it has tomatoes in it.
• Pizza is fine for you because it has olives and mushrooms in.
• Sugar gives you energy and salt helps store things in your body for later.
• The fast food has recyclable packaging.
• The meat is from great British farms.
• Protein in meat is good for you.
• It is cheap.
• Taste of food is delicious – tender, juicy.
• Chips are made from potatoes and you need to carbohydrates.
• Pizza contains dough.
• You can burn off the food with lots of exercise
• There is calcium inside the cheese as well as protein.
• There is salad in the burgers.

Against

• Fast food may look nice but it is full of bad ingredients.
• Salt and sugar is very bad for you because it can damage your body.
• Milkshakes are made of pig fat and so not good for you.
• Burgers contain pig intestine.
• The sugar rots your teeth.
• The toys in Happy Meals mean that you don’t realise what you are eating.
• Makes you fat.
• The food makes you eat more and more. You become addicted.
• Daily chips might be delicious but they have added salt and are cooked in fat.
• If you are lazy you won’t burn off the food.
• Paying for death.
• Throw rubbish in streets.

And now a reasoned argument about a historical figure. Background: J had been to London with his father so see the premier of the new Robin Hood. On the way back on the train they talked about Alexander the Great, his father's favourite topic! J put together a great argument about why Alexander the Great, in his opinion, may not be the greatest-ever military figure. He structured his argument impressively. The techniques used to write an essay were explained - structure, evidence and opinion. Then J produced this essay:

Was Alexander the Great a Good Leader?

Was he a good leader? For starters, yes. He took over many countries with his powerful army. He rode an uncontrollable horse named Bucephalus. He defeated the great leader of Persia, Darius. But he then got greedy. He was incredibly intelligent, but he used it in his greed.

He tried to conquer even more countries against his soldiers' will. And then he marched across a deadly desert and killed half of his army. He also killed his own friend when he insulted him. Very soon he caught a deadly disease, he was about to die. And all his subjects asked him the same question. Who was going to be the next leader? Alexander said, "The strongest."

This was a mistake that cost him his entire empire, because all his commanders fought against each other to see who was the strongest. Eventually all the generals went to lead different countries and everything went back to square one. These mistakes completely cancelled out the things he did that were incredible. What he should have done was stop when he got to Babylon and work with this incredible city. But he didn't, so my overall opinion will always be to think of him as Alexander the greedy failure!

J Fennell (9.09)