Nairn team are North of Scotland Debating Champions

Last Friday night (30th November), in Buckie High School, Nairn Academy’s debating team successfully retained the North of Scotland Schools Debating trophies which were won by the school last year. Following on from last session’s successes with Ruby Downie and Amy McCann, (both now having left the school), a new team was formed with inexperienced but enthusiastic third year pupils: Ruaridh Summers, Jade du Preez and Shae Montague.
 
After making steady progress through the three qualifying rounds Shae and Ruaridh were selected as the Finals pairing where they competed against fifth and sixth year students from Meldrum, Cults, Charleston, Robert Gordon’s College and St Margaret’s School for Girls.

In a hotly contested debate on whether ‘teenagers had it good’ the boys triumphed, winning the John Alan Cameron Quaich for best team. To add gloss to the victory, Shae was awarded the Winnie Ewing Trophy as best speaker in the final.

Speaking after the presentations Shae said: “This has been great. I really enjoyed the final and am looking forward to next year!”. Ruaridh added: “It was a bit intimidating, everyone else being older than us, but it made it all the better when we won.”
 
Coach John Chalmers said: “Naturally we’re very proud of the team and we couldn’t have got to the Final without Jade’s help, it was a real team effort. After our successes last year, to retain the trophies with a young and inexperienced team is a real bonus. It shows what potential the pupils have and underlines how hard they’ve worked to reach this level.”

Provost of Nairn Liz MacDonald was delighted the team had come top.  She said:  “This really is a great result for Nairn Academy against some really stiff competition so I congratulate Ruaridh, Jade and Shae who should feel very pleased with their impressive achievement.  They are a credit to themselves, their families, their school and their community and who should all feel very proud of their success.”