On Friday 29th May, Young Speakers Scotland had the privilege of lending support to two competitions: the West Lothian Schools Debating Competition and the Craigmount Schools Debating Competition. Both of these competitions are for debaters from S1-S4, offering a chance for newer speakers to try out the activity for the first time. YSS helped run the West Lothian competition, providing organisational support, topics for the debates and judges. At Craigmount, YSS provided judges.
It was wonderful to see so many schools taking part in these competitions, many of whom had never taken part in a competitive debating event before. A large number of these schools – including the winners of both tournaments – have participated in our Speak Up Scotland programme. This programme delivers free workshops to state schools around Scotland, with the aim of helping them establish successful debating clubs. It is no coincidence that as more schools have begun to take part in this programme, the number of state school teams taking part in and winning debating competitions in Scotland has increased.
At the West Lothian competition, 11 schools competed over 2 rounds, with the best teams breaking to a Gold, Silver and Bronze final. The motion for all three finals was ‘This house opposes the belief that money can buy happiness’. The quality of debating was exceptionally high, and James Young High School was declared the eventual winner. Thank you to West Lothian council for helping to put this event, now in its third year, together.
The debaters from James Young High School, winners of the 2026 West Lothian Schools Debating Competition.
The Craigmount schools competition is entirely pupil-run and features senior pupils judging debates alongside adult judges. This means it offers three distinct educational opportunities: for pupil organisers to learn how to run an event, for pupil judges to learn how to judge debates and, of course, for pupil debaters to learn debating skills.
This year, 32 teams took part in three preliminary rounds with the best teams breaking to a Gold and Silver final. The motion for the Gold Final was “This house prefers two-party political systems to multi-party political systems”. After a competitive final, the winning team was announced as Currie Community High School.
The debaters from Currie Community High School, winners of the 2026 Craigmount Schools Debating Competition.
Running a competition of this size is no small feat, and we’d like to commend the Craigmount senior debaters and their team of volunteers for organising such a high quality event.
Craigmount senior debaters briefing participants at the start of the 2026 Craigmount Schools Debating Competition.
Both competitions were free for schools. Over the last few years, as more schools in Scotland have started debating clubs, we have seen a rise in these competitions, meeting a growing demand for accessible debating opportunities. Our aim is to increase the number of regional events over the next few years, so that every debater in Scotland has debating competitions in their local area to take part in.