St Thomas of Aquin’s School debate team are gearing up for the Scotland Regional Final of the Institute of Ideas and Pfizer Debating Matters Competition, the national sixth form debating competition that takes ideas and young people seriously. The final will be held at the Glasgow Science Centre on the 14th March and is sponsored by the Medical Research Council in Scotland

This year, St Thomas’s fought off stiff competition from three other schools in the Edinburgh Qualifying Round and are now getting ready for a day of debating at the Glasgow Science Centre. The winning team will be going on to the National Final in London at the end of the school year. The students are also competing for individual awards and £1000 worth of books and resources for their schools from the educational publisher Hodder Murray Teams at the Scotland Regional final will be discussing a range of burning issues, including whether the BBC should be publicly funded, if bureaucracy and caution are preventing drug development and whether free speech is really a principle to be upheld absolutely.

St Thomas of Aquin’s students face a tough challenge at the final. Not only are the team competing against some of the most passionate and articulate students in Scotland, but they will also face a panel of eminent judges who will hold them to account, challenge them on their thinking and push them to defend their arguments. The judges at the final include some of Scotland’s most respected figures, amongst them Osama Saeed, Chairman of the Scottish-Islamic Foundation, Bobby Hain, Managing Director of STV, Professor Chris Preston, a leading scientist at the Medical Research Council’s Virology Unit and the literary agent Lindsey Fraser.

Both students and teachers have responded positively to the tough but rewarding debates with judges. As one of the participants from last year’s competition, Liam Macpherson remarked: ‘‘In terms of our broader life at school, there is very little opportunity to form views and opinions about wider social and political issues. The challenges put forward by the judges and our peers does just that- their input really allows you to fight back!’

Past judge, Anne Johnstone, a leader writer at the Herald agreed. ‘I always leave Debating Matters skipping. It is so uplifting being around young people who are so excited and inquisitive about the world. Spending a day at Debating Matters leaves me feeling incredibly optimistic about our future.’

Notes for editors 1. The Scotland Regional Final is taking place at the Glasgow Science Centre on Friday 14 March. It is sponsored by the Medical Research Council.

For information about sponsors, see www.debatingmatters.com/C2B/document_tree/ViewACategory.asp?CategoryID=37 2. The winning school receives £1000 worth of Hodder Murray books. The runner-up school wins £500 worth of Hodder Murray books. There are individual prizes for each team member. 3. Years 12 and 13 sixth form students take part (17-18 year olds).

The schools taking part in the Scotland Regional Final are St Thomas of Aquin’s, Edinburgh, Notre Dame High School, Glasgow, St Columba’s School, Kilmacolm, Harris Academy, Dundee. 4.

For details of the event programme, see: http://www.debatingmatters.com/C2B/document_tree/ViewACategory.asp?CategoryID=200 5. For further information about the competition, go to www.debatingmatters.com.

For press tickets or to interview students, teachers, judges and other participants, please contact Helen Birtwistle on 020 7269 9232 (t) 07799 418 956 (m) or helenbirtwistle@instituteofideas.com