I first discovered debating in Religious Studies lessons at secondary school and have had the bug ever since.

I went onto a degree in Philosophy at Durham - relishing the opportunities to debate in seminar - and remained there to completed by teacher-training in RS.

I began my teaching career in Staffordshire as Head of Humanities and have since taught a range of subjects at three London senior schools - with debating as a common theme!

Helping colleagues incorporate more debating was also a key objective when I sat on the Senior Academic Management Team at Channing School, as Co-ordinator for the More Able.

Whilst at Channing, the opportunity arose to launch a curriculum of philosophy and debating for children. I jumped at the chance and have never looked back. As part of this, I was awarded the prestigious Walter Hines-Page Scholarship by the English Speaking Union. I chose to research methods of assessment of philosophical and debating skills through visiting schools and universities in New York state.

I've had articles published in leading Headteachers' publications, and I was honoured when the UK government chose my words to lead their advice for talking to children about the war in Ukraine.

Alongside my work at Debate Planet, I work with schools every week to help them embed philosophy into their curriculums and by offering training, workshops and ongoing consultancy. I also speak at a range of events - from Heads' conferences and to training days for new teachers. I also write many of our free P4C resources which are sent out by email each week.

I've co-authored three books to date, including Thinking Moves A-Z - a game-changing approach to metacognition written with Roger Sutcliffe and Jason Buckley.

I have also worked at the Economist Educational Foundation, supporting schools to develop students' news literacy and encourage debates about current affairs.

I’m also Director of school team-building and character-development company Hidden Leaders, and lead many of the debating elements of our days.

In my spare time, I can usually be found engaging in sport or training for some kind of endurance event, or writing my debut children's novel.

Marley collaborates with Jason and Tom across various ventures, supporting the development of extra-curricular initiatives for schools and home-educated children.

Marley has been instrumental in setting up Debate Planet - from creating the majority of the motions (and testing them out with children), to choosing the quirky names for the themes and subjects, to creating the fantastic illustrations and having a big say in how the programme functions.

Before her work with Jason and Tom, she worked as a nanny while completing her undergraduate degree in philosophy. She has recently begun a Masters degree in Law.

She spends her free time working with hands-on creative projects and running in the forest near her home in North East London.

I’ve always enjoyed a good argument and set up a “Junior Debating Society” while I was at school. Having left school and taught myself at A Level, I read philosophy at Corpus Christi, Cambridge (now my watery home as a narrowboater). Philosophy is a subject that thrives on argument, and you’ll notice a philosophical flavour to many of the motions.

Years later, after embarking on a teaching career, I joined my local Toastmasters Public Speaking Club - the inspiration for the Warm-up Acts in the Debate Planet Passport. There, I saw adults who hadn’t been supported to find their voice while still at school but were now at a stage where their lack of confidence as speakers was holding them back in their careers. I saw some of the best, fastest arcs in learning I’ve ever seen - from not being able to stand up and say their name at the start of a meeting, to six months later delivering a ten- minute speech without notes that would hold an audience rapt. 

That feeds into the conviction that public speaking and debating is not just something for an elite few. It’s something everyone can enjoy, and that provides one of the easiest wins there is for a young person to surprise themself with their new-found capability and start to wonder what else they can do that they thought they couldn’t.

Another insight from Toastmasters, and from my joyous journey through the world of improvised comedy with terrific teachers from the UK and around the world, is that speeches made up on the spot can often be fresher and more interesting than those prepared in advance. Researching an area and structuring arguments in advance can lift the intellectual level of a debate, but speaking off-the-cuff brings its own challenges and is more inclusive and playful. 

Having been a secondary English teacher, I’m now a many-hatted educational entrepreneur, with interests in philosophy, (The Philosophy Man), outdoor education (Outspark), teambuilding and character development (Hidden Leaders), gifted education (Gift Courses), home education (P4HE) and of course, debating! When I’m not developing teams of brilliant educators in those areas, I enjoy kayaking, sailing, caving and narrowboating.