On February 22nd 2025, Young Speakers’ Scotland held the Finals Day of our Schools’ Mace Debating Competition at the Faculty of Advocates in Edinburgh. Eight teams from across Scotland participated in three knockout rounds, culminating in a Grand Final. For the very first time, we were also able to hold a Novice Final for the two best junior teams in the competition. After an excellent day of debates, Broxburn Academy was declared the Mace champions, and Currie Community High School won the Novice Final.
Teams qualified after taking part in a series of preliminary rounds across Scotland. 39 took part, with a record 72% being from state schools, a record number for this competition. Moreover, we were able to hold a heat in the Highlands for the very first time, leading to the highest number of Highlands schools we have ever had reach our Finals Day. In total, teams from 14 different local authorities competed in the early rounds, creating a diverse and competitive field of debaters.
7 schools progressed from these rounds to the Finals Day: Broxburn Academy, Dingwall Academy, Dollar Academy, George Heriot’s School, Invergordon Academy, Stirling High School and Wellington School. The two novice teams that progressed were from Aberdeen Grammar School and Currie Community High School.
The Finals Day at the Faculty of Advocates kicked off with the quarter-final round, where the topic was “This house would implement quotas for domestic players in national football leagues.” After four excellent debates, Broxburn Academy, Dollar Academy, George Heriot’s School and Stirling High School progressed to the semi finals.
The semi-final and novice final topic was “This house believes that the United Kingdom should return the Elgin Marbles”. Teams impressed the judges with their immense research on this topical issue and, after an extremely close set of debates, Broxburn Academy and Dollar Academy progressed to the Grand Final. The winner of the Novice Final was Currie Community High School.
The winners of the Novice Final, Juliet M and Annabel L from Currie Community High School, with Lady Ross.
The Grand Final topic was “This house would grant dictators immunity from prosecution in exchange for giving up power”. We were extremely lucky to have Lady Ross KC sit on our finals judging panel, lending her immense expertise to the decision of who won the debate.
After a brilliant, closely-fought final, the judges awarded the Mace Champion trophy to the team from Broxburn Academy. Additionally, Logan M from Dollar Academy was awarded best speaker at the Mace, and Paige G from Grantown Grammar School was awarded best novice speaker. Congratulations to all teams who took part in the competition.
Thank you to the Faculty of Advocates for hosting this event. Debaters were thrilled to get the opportunity to debate in actual court rooms, and the interactive presentation from the Faculty on what being an advocate entails gave debaters with an interest in law an opportunity to see what doing so looks like firsthand.
This year’s Mace demonstrated the impact of YSS’s Speak Up Scotland workshop programme. 8 state schools that took part in the programme entered the Mace for the very first time, and 5 Speak Up Scotland schools reached the Grand Final. Both teams in the Novice Final took part in our workshops.
Moreover, it was wonderful to see former Mace competitors taking part as volunteer judges at our Finals Day. Thank you to all the volunteer judges who lent their time and expertise on the day, providing helpful feedback to our competitors.
Ruth Crawford, Treasurer at the Faculty of Advocates; Logan M and Natalie Y, the runners-up from Dollar Academy; Luke R and Emma C, the winners from Broxburn Academy; and Lady Ross.