MALTON School students made their voices heard by winning through to the regional finals of a national public speaking competition.

The three sixth form students, Merrie Barnet, Gemma McNeill and Barney Plews, won in the senior team category in the county round of the Rotary Youth Speaks competition.

The trio will now go through to the regional finals at The Brooksbank School in Elland, West Yorkshire, and if successful they will proceed to the national finals in London.

Barney, who is in Year 12, won best speaker at the district event.

“I really enjoy taking part in these debating events as they are great fun. I’ve been doing them since I was in Year 7,” he said.

The district competition, held at Lady Lumley’s School, in Pickering, was made up of five local secondary schools followed by the county round at York.

The topics debated by the schools over six minutes ranged from fracking through to education and the art of public speaking.

Malton School’s chosen topic was ‘A Little Birdie Told Me’ and was about the role and influence of the social media platform Twitter.

Head teacher Rob Williams said: “The ability to speak well in public is a key skill for young people to develop; whilst the mental agility gained through debating, by listening to the arguments of others and responding persuasively, is often an important factor in our students going on to be successful in university or employment interviews.” Our extended day programme of personal skill development activities has allowed the school to offer public speaking and debating, along with over 40 different and wide-ranging opportunities for students to find new ways of being successful.”