Look who’s
talking
Mr West gives an update on Claremont High School’s Debate Union’s recent activities
3rd February 2026 saw the second round of this year's Churchill Public Speaking Competition from the English-Speaking Union, hosted at St Paul's Girl's School (SPGS) in Hammersmith. Our qualifying Claremont team consisted of three Year 11 students: Chair Karan Chauhan; Questioner Vidya Naker; and Speaker Leah Tunbridge, who delivered a speech on whether there could ever be such a thing as an original idea.
The team garnered good feedback from the judges, especially Leah's speech, which was rich in imagery, metaphor and delivered in an incredibly engaging manner. Unfortunately, the two teams picked to progress to the next round were from St Helen's and the hosts SPGS, the latter team putting in a nearly flawless performance.
A month later, on 1st March, Harrow School for Boys hosted their burgeoning annual Dr Nehru Cup Invitational, to which Claremont took three teams of two students each. Team A were Debate Union veterans Nicole Hibberd, Year 13, and Kanha Solanki, Year 12, while Team B were Year 11s Alexandra Gavrau and Sabina Jiurje. They were supported by Nazanin Ahmadi-Assalemi, Year 12, halfway through the competition. This was both Alex and Nazanin’s first ever event. Team C were Rania Al-Muktar, Year 13, and Aaradhya Mundada, Year 9. The latter is fast becoming one of the Debate Union's regular debaters at an impressively young age.
The all-day competition featured teams from eighteen different schools, from as far afield as the Midlands through to Kent. There were a total of 44 teams comprising 88 students who debated across four rounds. Motions included such topics as: banning social media for young people; mandatory technical qualifications for KS5; environmental border taxes; and the dissolution of the monarchy.
I am thrilled to report that for the second year running we had two teams break through to the finals of the competition. This year both Team A and C qualified for the Silver Final. They then stayed on for a fifth debate, placing them against two teams from Ashmole Academy. The atmosphere in the room was excellent. Friends of the teams stayed on as audience members and the debate itself was the best I saw all day. Kanha Solanki was told by the judges that his summary for the opposition was the best individual speech of the competition they had seen! Team A finished sixth overall (out of forty-four) and Team C finished eighth.
Nicole reflected on her experiences with the Debate Union to date: ‘Every competition is completely nerve-wracking and this never goes away, but it becomes easier to cope with. Debating is fun, so it’s useful to relax into that to combat the anxiety. There’s a lot to take away from the experience, most of all an open-minded attitude. The best part of debating is hearing both sides of an argument, perhaps in ways I’d never thought about before, from people I wouldn’t usually meet.’
We are very proud of all our competitive debaters and Claremont is definitely becoming a known quantity on the London circuit. Coming up later in March: Nicole and Kanha head to Cambridge for the Cambridge Schools’ Debating Competition finals; we take some Year 7s to their first ever debate competition - Fictional Worlds Debating at South Hampstead School; and I hope to squeeze in our Claremont Intercollege Debate Competition… That’s enough talking for now!