Four Chester High Schools debated a variety of subjects in our local heat of Youth Speaks - a Debate, the Rotary debating competiton. Teams from Christleton High School, The King's School, Upton High School and Bishop's High School entered, debating a question which they had rehearsed.

The competition aims to offer young people:

• experience in speaking on a public platform as a member of a team
• an incentive to formulate ideas on topical subjects and to put these forward to an audience while being in
  opposition to another speaker
• discipline in dealing with a topic in a limited time
• the opportunity of learning and practising high standards of expression, presentation and appearance
• impartial feedback and assessment of their performance by experienced judges

Subjects chosen for debate included:

• Can we ever truly know history?
• "Homework has minimal value for students and is an unnecessary burden."
• The school week should be reduced to 4 days
• The house believes that climate change activism has gone too far

Students, aged 11-13, competed in teams of 3 to argue the pros and cons of their chosen subject. They received expert feedback from our panel of judges -

Kate Manton - Business Lecturer (Operations, Marketing, ILM)/ Facilitator and Coach/ Publisher/ TedX speaker (Linked In profile)

Cat Williams - Inspirational Speaker, Author, Clinical Hypnotherapist - more info at https://www.buildingyourconfidence.com/

The venue was the splendidly ornate Committee Room of Chester Town Hall.

Participating schools also received written feedback from our judge's notes. We hope that we have improved the public speaking and debating skills of all those who took part, and it was a very enjoyable day for adults attending!

As in 2024, Upton High School were selected to represent Chester in the next heat, held in Wrexham later this year.

Some images from the 2025 Chester High Schools Debate - Junior event: