Last Wednesday Braidwood Central School hosted a full day of training for primary school students and their teachers in debating and critical thinking skills. The day was part of an initiative developed at Braidwood Central to support regional schools that often miss out on some of the opportunities more readily afforded to urban students. Similar days organised by BCS have been run recently in Cooma and Queanbeyan, and next month a fourth day will take place in Narooma.
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Last week’s training was attended by schools from Bodalla, Moruya, Batemans Bay, Ulladulla, Bungendore and, of course, by Braidwood Central itself. The classes were conducted by some of our state’s most experienced and inventive workshop leaders, led by James Smith from Masters Academy, who travelled from Sydney especially to provide this service for our country children. While the students were playing logic games and doing mini debates, their teachers were learning methods to take back to their classrooms to further the development of their charges.
The principal of Bombala Public school, Jo Tozer, who attended the Cooma day, commented afterwards: ‘The information and skills shared were amazing and made debating jump out of the old stereotype of being boring to being something that can be fun while you learn many new skills. My students were a little hesitant in the morning when they first arrived, however they were buzzing with excitement and enthusiasm by the end of the day. This was a wonderful day often not afforded to small schools in rural and remote areas.’