Youth Speaks 2025
On Thursday 16 January 2025, we held our first full Youth Speaks: A Debate, competition since the pandemic. We were kindly hosted by Church of theHoly Spirit, Bedgrove, to whom we extend many thanks. We had seven teams from Aylesbury High School, The Grange School and St. Michael’s Roman Catholic School.
Laike Twiss, Bard of Aylesbury, chaired the judging panel, supported by our host, Rev. Martin Kuhrt and Mr Andrew Bell, Independent Celebrant. Topics under discussion included Should punishment be the main purpose ofprison?, Do boarding schools do more harm than good? and Video games should be banned for children under 16.
Our winning entry in the Intermediate stage (age 11-13) came from Aylesbury High School, with Do boarding schools cause more harm than good? Runners up were The Grange School.
Winners of the Senior Stage (age 14-17) were St Michael’s RC School, with This house would ban internet access for under 11’s. Runners up were also from St Michael’s.
The winners progressed to the District Finals which were hosted by our Club at the Church of the Holy Spirit, Bedgrove on 6 and 7 February. The winners of the Intermediate stage were Aldwickbury School, Wheathampstead, and the Senior stage winners were Redbourne Upper School, Bedford.
