Teachers can tailor the Debating to three difficulty levels to meet students’ needs. 

• Beginner learners (6-7 years old): Use very simple, familiar questions, give full support with role cards, sentence starters, modelling, and very short exchanges – focus on listening and finding one common thing. Create a safe space to express an opinion and practice taking turns. A great approach is a physical debate or a “this or that” scenario. The teacher can then pass a talking object around, asking each student to provide just one simple reason for their choice using a provided sentence starter. At this stage, there is no back-and-forth arguing; the goal is purely sharing and listening.
• Advanced learners (8-9 years old): Around eight to nine years old, the students are ready to respond directly to one another and build slightly more complex thoughts. Introduce slightly broader questions, have children switch roles once, ask them to restate each other’s ideas before replying, and guide them to a shared small plan. This is the perfect time to introduce the echo rule, where a student must summarize what the previous person said before making their own point. Students should be expected to provide a clear opinion with at least two supporting reasons and use transition phrases provided on the board, respectfully acknowledging the other side before stating their own case.
• Expert learners (9-10 years old): Introduce formal team debates with three members on each side, assigning specific roles like introducer, rebutter, and summarizer. Give them a few minutes of preparation time to brainstorm arguments as a team. To truly push their cognitive and empathy skills, you can assign them a stance they might personally disagree with. This role-reversal requires them to rely on logical examples rather than personal feelings, and they must actively take notes while the opposing team speaks so they can prepare thoughtful counter-arguments.