Young Speakers Scotland

The teams progressing from our Aberdeenshire heat are Aberdeen Grammar School and Banchory Academy. We still have a Dingwall and Ayrshire heat to go before all the finalists are confirmed!

bsky.app/profile/youn...

Thurso High School will join the schools who qualified for the Finals Day at our Edinburgh heat last Saturday: Currie Community High School, Broxburn Academy Hyndland Academy, Stewart's Melville, Dingwall Academy and Dollar Academy. Well done to all the schools who took part!

We had a brilliant day up north running a heat of our Schools Mace competition for pupils from Caithness and Orkney. Well done to Thurso for winning and earning a prestigious spot at our Finals Day next year!

We’re in the Borders today for a back-to-back workshop extravaganza! We’ll start the day with the debaters at Earlston High School and then move on to Berwickshire High School for another exciting workshop. We can’t wait!

Teams are hard at work preparing for round 3 - this house would make teachers’ salaries dependant on the academic performance of their pupils.

The prepared topic is: “This house believes that governments should actively use social media influencers as part of their communications strategy”

Teams will take part in 3 rounds today. They already know one of their topics - the other two will be given to them one hour before their debate.

Today is the first heat of our Schools Mace debating competition! We’re in Banchory, where 12 teams from around Aberdeenshire will compete for 3 spots at the prestigious Finals Day.

Today our Speak Up Scotland programme was at Linlithgow Academy, delivering a debating workshop to a club that’s going places! 🗣️

See our website for info on how your school can take part.

We ended our week in Motherwell, running a Speak Up Scotland workshop with the incredible debaters at Our Lady’s High School! ✨

We were in Midlothian today, running a Speak Up Scotland workshop with the pupils at St David’s RC High School!

Thank you to all the pupils who came to our training day at Currie High School. A great start to what’s sure to be a thrilling year of debating in Scotland!

We’re kicking off our 2024-2025 Speak Up Scotland programme today with a workshop in Arbroath.

Our free debating workshops help pupils gain confidence and critical thinking skills. See our website for details on how your school can get involved!

Are you interested in debating for Scotland? Applications for the 2025/2026 team are now open!

For more details about the various streams and a link to the application form please email scottishdebatingteam@gmail.com.

Application forms are due by 13:00 on Sunday, 7th September 2025.

This year our Speak Up Scotland programme delivered 60 workshops to over 1,000 young people around Scotland, from Thurso to the Borders. And we’re just getting started!

We concluded this year’s Speak Up Scotland programme today with a workshop with the brilliant S3 debaters at James Young High School in West Lothian.

Thank you to all the wonderful schools that took part in the programme this year! We can’t wait to see you after the Summer break ☀️

“Last year I lost every debate so it was great to see my hard work throughout the year pay off. I learned so much during the competition and can’t wait to debate more next year!"

www.ross-shirejournal.co.uk/news/invergo...

Penny and Gabriel, the winning debaters, both took part in the junior Scottish National team structure this year.

The senior team will be competing at the World Championships in Panama over the Summer, where Scotland is defending the title. Applications for the 2025-2026 team will open in August.

Congratulations to St Ninian’s- winners of the 2025 Ayrshire Cup!

After 3 preliminary rounds, St Ninian’s beat Currie Community High School and Broxburn Academy in a thrilling final. Congratulations!

It’s a busy week for Scottish debating! After a brilliant day at the Highland Schools Debating Competition in Dingwall yesterday, we’re off to Ayr to judge at the Ayrshire Cup today.

Best of luck to all the schools taking part!

Shaun says: “I had an amazing time at this year's Highlands Schools Debating Competition. Last year I lost every debate so it was great to see my hard work throughout the year pay off! I learned so much during the competition and can’t wait to debate more next year!"

Congratulations to Invergordon, winners of our second annual Highland Schools Debating Competition!

Shaun and Cameron bested debaters from 7 other schools over three rounds and a final, impressing the judges with their analysis and passion.

On Thursday we had an excellent joint workshop in Nairn with pupils from Nairn Academy, Invergordon Academy, Grantown Grammar School and Inverness Royal Academy. We can’t wait to be back!

We’re at session one of our Highlands Week today; delivering a workshop to beginner debaters from Lochaber High School, Ardnamurchan High School, Mallaig High School and Kinlochleven High School! ✨ 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 🗣️

Summer is around the corner but our Speak Up Scotland programme hasn't slowed down! In the last two weeks we've delivered debating workshops in Ayr, Perth, West Calder, Motherwell and Curriehill - and can't wait to visit Fort William and Nairn next week! ✨

You can find more information on this event, including a link to the registration form, on our website.

youngspeakersscotland.org.uk/events/highl...

Scotland's schools are in a state but the intellectual depth of some children is astonishing The standard of the speeches at the Scottish Public Speaking Competition was the highest Cameron Wyllie had witnessed in 50 years

“In fifty years… I had never seen such a high standard.”

A brilliant piece in The Scotsman from Cameron Wyllie, who judged our Public Speaking Finals and left inspired by the speeches.

Read it here 👇

www.scotsman.com/news/opinion...

Following the success of the inaugural Highland Schools Debating Competition last year, we're thrilled to announce that we're partnering with Brodies and the Highland Council to run this event again in 2025!

These free workshops use debating as a tool to build confidence and critical thinking abilities.

We’re proud to work with Scotland’s young people, empowering them to advocate for themselves. See our website for more details on this programme: youngspeakersscotland.org.uk/speak-up-sco...

Our Speak Up Scotland programme was in Perth today, where we delivered a debating workshop to the brilliant pupils from Perth Grammar School, Perth High School and St John’s Academy!