Great topics for exciting debates and discussions
We have gathered together a range of debating motions, covering all sorts of topics, from sport to citizenship, to science and international relations. Use them as the starter for a form-time discussion, or as the topic in debating club this week.
Debate topics with stimulus sheets
Our stimulus sheets can be a great way to help novice debaters feel more comfortable when preparing for a debate.
- This house believes it would be good to be famous
- Children should choose what they learn in school
- This house would ban dangerous sports
- Is digital technology making children’s lives better?
- This house would encourage children to strike for climate change
- Teachers should be allowed to smack naughty children
- Books are better than television
- Children should be paid to go to school
- Computers should replace teachers
- Every child should have a pet
- This house would ban boxing
- This House would ban homework
- This house believes Britain should get rid of its nuclear deterrent
- This house believes that every child should have to join a sports club or team
- This house believes all 10 year olds should have a mobile phone
- We should ban junk food for children
- Competitive sports should not be played in schools
- We should ban cars from city centres
- All police officers should carry guns
- The voting age should be lowered to 12
- There should be children and teenagers in government
- London is a great place for teenagers to live
- Britain should leave the European Union
- This house believes that we shouldn’t teach art and music in schools
- Children should be allowed mobile phones in school
- Children should only get pocket money if they do their chores
- Elizabeth II should be the last British monarch
- Sports stars are bad role models for young people
- We should scrap SATs
- We should ban violent video games
- We should all be vegetarian
- We should only eat food produced in Britain
- Children can make a big difference to the environment
- All secondary schools should be co-educational
- We support a manned mission to Mars
- There should be a curfew for under-sixteens
- This House believes community service is a better punishment than prison for non-violent crimes
- This House would ban scientific testing on animals
- This House looks forward to the London Olympics
- School uniforms should be abolished
- Footballers are paid too much money
- We should shut down zoos
All topics
- Teachers should wear a uniform
- School strikes for climate change should be supported
- All 10 year olds should have a mobile phone
- Teachers should not tell their pupils which party they will vote for
- School Uniform Policies Should Be Gender Neutral
- It is worse to eat too much than to eat too little
- We should ban junk food for children
- Competitive sports should not be played in schools
- We should ban cars from city centres
- The voting age should be lowered to 12
- All police officers should carry guns
- First past the post electoral systems should be reformed
- International adoption should be banned
- It is better to live in the countryside
- Scientists should be ethically responsible for the consequences of their research
- The world would be a better place if more women were in charge
- Teen defendants should be judged by teen juries
- Books should be realistic not fantastical
- Film versions are never as good as the original books
- We should stop giving prizes for the arts
- Schools should be responsible for children’s moral education
- The UK should welcome a visit from President Trump
- Peaceful protest achieves nothing
- The NHS should be privatised
- There should be children and teenagers in government
- Giving is better than receiving
- Extremist political parties should be banned
- New immigrants should have to swear an “oath of integration”
- We should donate to charities that support humans over those that support animals
- The US president should be elected by popular vote
- Voting should be compulsory
- London is a great place for teenagers to live
- Britain should leave the European Union
- This house believes that we shouldn’t teach art and music in schools
- Children should be allowed mobile phones in school
- Seventy years on, the United Nations is a disappointment
- The minimum wage should be replaced by the living wage
- Children should not start school until they are seven years old
- Britain should maintain its nuclear deterrent
- The electorate should not care about a politician’s youth
- Affluent nations should accept more refugees
- All children should attend a summer school
- It is better to be a teacher than a pupil
- Elizabeth II should be the last British monarch
- Children should only get pocket money if they do their chores
- We would welcome robots into our homes
- The NHS should fund alternative medical treatments
- We should ban plastic carrier bags
- We should blow up boats used for trafficking immigrants across the Mediterranean
- Sports stars are bad role models for young people
- We should scrap SATs
- Nobody should have to wear school uniform
- We should ban violent video games
- Party leaders should be required to take part in pre-election debates
- Scientists should be responsible for the ethical consequences of their work
- Individuals should not be allowed to have bonfires in their gardens
- There has never been a better time to be a woman
- Childhood vaccinations should be compulsory
- We should allow the creation of babies with three parents
- Alcohol harms society more than illegal drugsThe world will be a better place at the end of 2015 than at the start
- We should all be vegetarian
- We should only eat food produced in Britain
- Children can make a big difference to the environment
- All secondary schools should be co-educational
- We support a manned mission to Mars
- There should be a curfew for under-sixteens
- This House believes community service is a better punishment than prison for non-violent crimes
- This House would ban scientific testing on animals
- England should have its own parliament
- Scotland should be independent
- Unhealthy food should not feature in children’s television programmes
- We should fine parents when their children don’t do their homework
- Pubs should be allowed to open late to show World Cup matches
- The rich should pay a lot more tax
- The use of television cameras in courtrooms should be supported
- Space exploration is a waste of money
- Science is the answer to our problems
- Parents should be allowed to use technology to choose characteristics of their babies
- Animal testing is scientifically unnecessary
- We should use more nuclear energy
- University education should be free
- Disney films provide bad role models for children
- We should ban smoking in cars when children are present
- Political leaders should boycott the Winter Olympics in Sochi
- Sugar is worse than fat
- There should be no censorship of the arts
- Prizes for the arts (such as the Booker prize or the Turner prize) should be stopped
- The Internet has done more harm than good to the arts
- Art and music should not be taught in schools except as optional extra-curricular activities
- The state should not subsidise the arts
- Child beauty pageants should be banned
- The world cannot live up to Nelson Mandela’s legacy
- We should respect the privacy of public figures
- Children should not be allowed to wear religious symbols in schools
- There should be quotas for women in top business positions
- Fireworks should be banned
- We should invest in more green energy
- The media provides poor role models to young girls
- Faith schools should not be funded by the Government
- Universities should set higher admission criteria for students from private schools
- All children should get free school meals
- No footballer is worth £85 million
- All children should be given iPads to use at school
- Are you looking forward to the new National Curriculum?
- All cities should have mayors
- We should arm Syrian rebels
- The school summer holiday should be half as long
- Online gambling should be banned
- We should invest more in space exploration
- There’s no need to read the book if you can just watch the film
- The very wealthy should pay more taxes
- Money is ruining sport
- All faiths should allow female religious leaders
- Prison should only be for violent criminals
- The BBC should be privatised
- Parents should be blamed for crimes committed by their children
- Children shouldn’t have to do chores
- Bullies should be excluded from schools
- The House of Lords should be fully elected
- Abortion should be banned
- We should elect judges
- Pupils should appoint their head teacher
- Modern art isn’t really art
- It should be harder to get divorced
- Gambling should be banned
- Should the press be regulated by the government or left to regulate themselves?
- Smoking should be banned
- Parents should be paid for staying at home with their children
- Detentions don’t work as punishments
- GCSEs should be abolished
- Smoking should be made illegal
- There is life after death
- Now we have film, there’s no point in the theatre
- The government shouldn’t give money to museums and art galleries
- Alcohol should be made illegal
- Free contraception should be handed out in secondary schools
- Discipline is the biggest problem facing schools today
- Cannabis should be legalised
- People should be allowed to own hand guns like they are in America
- Schools should be allowed to set their own curriculums
- Women should be allowed to fight on the front line in wars
- Murderers should never be released from prison
- Girls and boys should play sports together on the same teams
- One person can make a real difference
- We should prioritise giving charity at home before giving charity abroad
- We should televise criminal trials
- Performance enhancing drugs should be allowed in sports
- There is no more for feminism to do
- This House looks forward to the London Olympics
- Creationism should never be taught in schools
- The X-Factor has damaged the British Music Industry
- Money doesn’t bring you happiness
- There’s no point in studying Shakespeare in schools
- Research into cloning should be stopped
- The best way to prepare for the future is to study the past
- We should try to be more like America
- Marriage is an outdated institution
- Mums should stay at home and look after their children
- Clinically obese children should be taken into care
- How much money you earn is more important than whether you enjoy your job
- Children should have more say over their education
- The negative side of fame outweighs its advantages
- It should be compulsory to learn a foreign language until you are 16
- The Olympic Games will be good for London
- School uniforms should be abolished
- A country should never go to war except in self defence
- Teachers should be paid according to their results
- Young people are discriminated against in Britain
- Globalisation has increased the rich-poor divide
- Sport should not be compulsory in schools
- The internet has caused more problems than it has solved
- There should be a super tax on air travel
- It’s wrong to keep animals as pets
- It would be better to go a boarding school than a day school
- Teachers should be allowed to physically punish students
- We should abolish the monarchy
- More English players should play in the Premiership
- The government should not fund single faith schools
- We should raise taxes to provide better public services
- We should ban medical testing on animals
- Adverts are sexist
- Children should not be allowed to eat junk food
- Parents should not be allowed to smack their children
- It’s never been harder to be a child or a teenager than it is today
- Assisted suicide should be legal
- We should bring back the death penalty
- Recycling should be made compulsory
- Only British history should be taught in British schools
- The voting age should be lowered to 16
- Size zero models should be banned
- Footballers are paid too much money
- Television is a bad influence on young people
- Coursework is better than exams
- We should shut down zoos