Teams from Oakham, Leicester and Cambridge converged on Bassingbourn Village College to compete in the district finals of the English Speaking Union/Churchill public speaking competition.

Students spoke on such diverse subjects as ‘Have our leaders lost touch with the people?’, ‘Should we take extra terrestrial beings more seriously?’, ‘Terminally ill children – who should make life-ending decisions?’ and ‘Keep calm and carry on. Have we lost the ability to do this?’

Although the BVC team – speaker Iain Lynn, chairman Bea Cornwell and questioner Ed Evans – didn’t win through to the next round, Ed was judged to be best speaker in the questioner role.

The winning team of girls from English Martyrs School in Leicester now go forward to the semi finals which will be held in Magdalene College, Cambridge, next month.

Since the competition the ESU has picked up speaker Iain as a ‘student to watch’ as he has pledged 100 tweets about oracy to celebrate the centenary of the ESU and he features on their website.