STUDENTS put their argumentative sides to good use when they won a debating competition.

The Roding Valley High School team has won this year's Epping Forest Schools Parliamentary Debating Competition.

Year 10 student Florence New and and Year 11 student Eva Randall were presented with the trophy which the school will hold for a year, and individual trophies to keep. 

They debated whether the government's 0.7 per cent ring-fenced budget for overseas aid should be reduced, and money spent in the UK.

Six schools - Epping St John's, Davenant Foundation School, Chigwell School, Roding Valley High School, King Harold Academy and Debden Park High School - took part in the competition which was held at Epping St John's School.

Students speaking against the motion were Roding Valley, Debden Park and King Harold Academy.

Runners-up were the Davenant Foundation School team of Year 13 student Jayden Fitzgibbon and Year 12 student Christos Alexandrou.

A prize for the best individual performance was presented to Year 11 Chigwell School student Christopher Collins.=

Epping Forest MP Eleanor Laing, who organised the event, said: "All the speakers were absolutely brilliant. Every year we have held the competition the standard of the debate gets better and better."


The judges were county councillor Valerie Metcalfe, chairman of the panel, councillor Aniket Patel, former Theydon Bois Primary School headteacher Elspeth Bonds and Everything Epping Forest owner David Jackman.