A team of talented speakers from a North Yorkshire-based secondary academy are celebrating after booking their place in the Regional Finals of a national debating competition.

The debate team from Outwood Academy Easingwold, based on York Road, won their place in the Regional Final of the The English-Speaking Union’s (The ESU) Schools’ Mace, the oldest and largest debating competition for schools in England.

The team, composed of year 12 students Louis Boyce, Ben Toomey and Tom Walker, argued in favour of the motion: ‘This house would ban job applicants from disclosing the names of educational institutions that they have attended', in their regional round match.

Tom Garnham, Assistant Principal & Head of Sixth Form at Outwood Academy Easingwold, said:

“We are absolutely delighted and so proud of the efforts of Louis, Ben and Tom. They performed exceptionally well and we look forward to supporting them in the next round.

“At Outwood, we believe in putting students first and this goes beyond the classroom for us. We want our students to be outstanding, well-rounded citizens when they leave us, who contribute to their community, and supporting our students in events like this is evidence of this.”

Over 300 schools participate in the prestigious competition every year, and some well-known personalities have competed in it in the past, including Channel 4 News presenter, Krishnan Guru-Murthy.

The regional round saw a team from Wensleydale High School take on a team from Malton High School and St Peter's School, York, go head-to-head against the team from Outwood Academy Easingwold.  

Both Outwood Academy Easingwold and Malton School will progress to the Regional Final.

During their debate, the team from Outwood Academy Easingwold made a number of compelling arguments as to why removing the names of educational institutions would level the playing field and create more equality when applying for jobs. 

Due to the ongoing social restrictions, the team’s achievement is made even more impressive as the debate took place online, over zoom, with the judge stating that they worked extremely well as a team.  The judge showered praise on all of the students who have only begun debating this academic year.

The Regional Finals are due to take place in the next two months, again on Zoom.