Year 5 successfully debate the motion that ‘Homework should be banned for primary school students’.
At St Mary’s, debating is a thriving skill developed from Year 5 to Year 13, where students learn to express ideas confidently, listen carefully, and disagree respectfully.
To provide our Year 5 with a taste of the excitement of a good debate, they were invited to the Senior School to take part in a friendly competition against St Matthews School. Both sides were helped and encouraged by our more experienced Year 8 and 9 students as they debated the motions ‘Homework should be banned for primary school students’ and ‘All school lunches should be vegetarian.’
After some compelling arguments and well thought out responses, the judges declared that each school had won one motion, with St Mary’s taking the view that homework should most certainly be banned, while St Matthew argued very successfully in favour of a vegetarian school diet. | 
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While the pros and cons for homework were argued with a passion only to be found in those who currently have to undertake said homework, the moral and environmental reasonings behind a vegetarian diet, as proposed by St Matthew's, were equally hard to disagree with. As with all good debates, preparation and clear and confident communication were key, with both schools rising to the challenge.
May 2026