We were pleased to be invited to Miss Forest's Year 8 Religion, Ethics and Philosophy class recently where pupils were practicing Socratic questioning. 

Miss Forrest commented:  'During these lessons Year 8 students have been on a journey back to Ancient Greece, a time when some great thinkers were beginning to question their existence and challenge the status quo.  Born in Athens, Socrates is considered to be one of the first great figures of philosophy.  Year 8 students have been exploring Socrates' unique style of questioning of a disciplined approach of thoughtful probing to determine the logic and validity of ideas.  Some examples of questions we have been using are: 'Why do you say that?', 'Could you explain further?', Can you give me an example?', 'What evidence do you have for this?'.  Year 8 students took it in turns to be Socrates (the Gadfly) and then challenged their partner's ideas with Socratic questioning.  Bringing Ancient Greece to the 21st Century made for a very lively debate.'