On Saturday 9^th March, Catherine and Anja, both in Year 13, joined forces as RHB’s first team to compete in the prestigious Oxford Schools Debating Final.

They had qualified from the regional round in January and travelled to Oxford for an 8am start to debate against over 100 debating teams from around the world. As expected, the standard was extremely high but Catherine and Anja were competitive in each debate, accumulating some impressive speaker scores.

"By mid-afternoon, with the prospect of qualifying for the semi-finals beyond their grasp, this audacious RHS debating duo decided to ‘go rogue’, adopting a daring primalist stance in their final environmentally-focused debate to the incredulity of the opposing teams and judges. A foolhardy gambit? Perhaps. I call it a refreshing display of mental gymnastics in a world blighted by increasingly brittle ideology. They did us proud." Mr Owen, Head of English