A talented team of year 8 students have taken part in the English Speaking Union’s Schools’ Mace Debate competition for the first time in the academy’s history.

The students, all members of our Scholars Programme, learned about the structure and rules of the mace debate format, before getting stuck in to preparing for their first outing as a debating team. Going up against a private school, the motion of “This house believes that educational policy should be set by experts rather than politicians” was a particularly controversial one. The team of five worked together to research, plan and practise their arguments, with a team of three participating on the night. Well done to Kareem, Victoria, Jacqueline, Aleem and Rhys. We are looking forward to many more debates in the near future!