Royal Hospital School (RHS) in Holbrook, is celebrating its recent success in the English-Speaking Union (ESU) Schools' Mace debating competition which saw it storm through to the regional finals which take place at the end of February.

The school debating team, consisting of Toby Chavasse, Eve Hughes and Ayoola Oshiyemi, travelled to Langley, Norfolk, for the second heat of the competition.

Proposing the motion 'This House would ban countries with a poor human rights record from hosting sporting events', the team faced tough opposition from Framlingham School. 

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At the end of the evening, RHS was one of two schools to make it through to the next round of the competition - the regional finals.

The judge praised Toby Chavasse, in particular, as the stand-out speaker of the evening, while also commenting on how well RHS pupils worked as a team. 

George Johnson, Head of Academic Challenge at RHS said: "We are delighted to have progressed to the regional finals of the English-Speaking Union (ESU) Schools' Mace debating competition for the second year in a row. We encourage our students to develop their teamwork and oracy skills, so adding a competitive environment to hone these skills further has been really well received by our debating team."

RHS pupils, Toby, Ayoola and Eve, who took part in the competition, enjoyed the challenge.

Ayoola said: "It was an amazing opportunity to continue to develop my debating and public speaking skills, allowing me to share my passion and knowledge on topical global issues on a larger platform."

Eve agreed and said: "It was a different experience than I'm used to as I began debating during COVID when we were still online, so debating with different schools in person made the debate much more interesting!" 

And Toby added: "Debating is one of the most exciting ways to learn about new topics and to gauge an understanding for the wider world. It also helps to develop your confidence and skills in listening and communication."