Parkside Community College students triumph in debating competition at Cambridge Union

Two students at Parkside Community College have won the prestigious Cambridge Schools’ Debating Competition, held at the Cambridge Union.

Ashley, 14, and Ruby, 13, took part in the debate, held on a Saturday. Guy Doza, an author, TEDx speaker and leadership coach, runs the school’s debate club.

He said: “I asked our children who wanted to compete and they were all Key Stage 3 students.

“We entered two teams – each with two speakers – and one of our teams came first, first, first and second, in the four rounds, and then came joint first overall.

“Ashley was the highest-ranked speaker of the entire competition, which is phenomenal, because a lot of the children there they come from very elite private schools.

“They’re all sixth-formers. They have an extra three years of education – sometimes more – and they’ve had lots of professional training.

“Our kids went there being themselves, thinking about problems slightly differently, and managed to almost intellectually outmanoeuvre the other competitors.”