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Posted on: March 10th 2025
Mayoral Debate
The Mayor of Tonbridge and Malling invites pupils from local primary schools to the council chamber in Kings Hill. This is to give young people the opportunity to learn more about local government and to exchange views on topical subjects each year. This year Dexter, Lami, Laure and Scott represented Leybourne Chase. They prepared arguments for and against issuing homework in schools, the use of technology and the length of the school week.
The first interesting debate heard views from children across all the primary schools on “Should school days be longer so we can get Fridays off?”. The viewpoints ranged from ‘having an extra day off provides us with more chances during the week to do activities with friends outside of school’ to ‘not everyone's parents would necessarily be able to have Friday off so childcare would become an issue’. When the discussion was drawn to a close by the Mayor, he asked the participants to vote. Eight were in favour and forty-five were against.
The votes cast for the question, ‘Do we spend too much time on technology?’ found 18 in favour and 35 against the motion. The overarching comments were that technology was another way to socialise and study in a world that is becoming technologically advanced.
There was an interesting conclusion when voting on the question, ‘Is homework necessary?’; 13 said yes, 36 said no and 4 said yes and no! Those against thought homework was excessive in secondary schools but those for thought it prepared you for the future as it gives you responsibility and ownership of your learning.
Once they got over their initial nerves - and how to turn the microphone on and off when they wanted to share their opinion, the children found the whole experience enjoyable and interesting.
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