PUPILS from secondary schools across York made their voices heard as part of a city-wide public speaking contest.

The annual York Civic Trust Secondary School public speaking competition was held this year in the historic King’s Manor and nine schools took part: All Saints RC, Bootham, Fulford, Joseph Rowntree, Manor CE Academy, St Olave’s, Vale of York Academy and York High.

Up for debate were:

Is a development made of old shipping containers right for the centre of York?

The King’s Manor was once the home of the Council of the North: it should be again!

What will visitors of the future find most interesting about the York of today?

York is a place to visit, not a place to live

Museums are boring

Each school was represented by two pupils and this year the top prize went to York High’s duo, Oscar Dewine and Sam Holland whose chosen subject was ‘museums are boring’.They each won a £25 book token and trophy for their school - an obelisk designed by Dick Reid a local craftsman. Examples of his work can be found in Fairfax House in York and Windsor Castle.

Coming in second were the team from Joseph Rowntree - Emily Kane and Sam Roberts who opted to talk about ‘visitors of the future’, and third place went St Olave’s represented by Alex Wood and Charley Garden who spoke about ‘museums are boring.

This year the judges were Keith Hayton, a former secondary school head, English adviser Trisha Ellison and Elly Fiorentini from Radio York.

Earlier in year the trust ran a similar contest for primary school pupils when St Wilfrid’s RC School won the prize, for the third year in a row, from 13 other schools.

The winning speakers, Ruby Harrison and Freddie Thornton, spoke on their chosen subject: York Minster is world famous but is it the lesser known buildings that tell York’s story?

The Trust’s Education Committee believes schoolchildren can enjoy and learn from public speaking – especially on a York theme and has organised public speaking competitions for both primary and secondary school pupils in York, on heritage topics, since 2012.

Family and Trust members are welcome to attend. The next one is on 22 November 2017, at the King’s Manor.

Verna Campbell, chairman of the trust's education committee, said: “We had more schools this year than before. The standard of every single school was very high - there could have been many winners. It's also the first time two boys have won."