At the start of term we asked our year 12 students to apply for a new opportunity, to take part in a a fantastic initiative called Burnet News Club. On 22 January we ran our first session with 28 students.
Burnet News Club was established by The Economist Educational Foundation and gives students the opportunity to learn more about the world they live in whilst developing their debating skills and getting to know and work with new people.
Weekly sessions are being run virtually via teams and last about an hour. Weeks alternate between learning about a new current affairs story and completing tasks, and debating the key issues. The first debate took place on 2 February and the first hot topic was the use of use of vaccines to combat the Coronavirus pandemic. Students responded to the following questions:
Should it be compulsory to be vaccinated against Coronavirus?
Should it be possible for countries/governments to hoard vaccines?
Should there be harsher punishments for spreading “fake news” about the vaccines?
A debate with our students via Teams
Burnet news club will be running until Easter and we can’t wait to see how our students continue to learn more about the world around them.