A DEBATING team at Beckfoot School in Bingley has won a competition that saw schools from across Yorkshire discuss tough issues.

Debating Matters competition, organised by the Institute of Ideas, was held at the West Yorkshire Playhouse and involved school teams discussing questions like 'does anybody have the right to not be offended' and 'is space exploration a waste of time and money'.

Beckfoot School narrowly proved victorious, beating King Edward VI Grammar School in the final debate on Western humanitarian intervention.

The school team will now progress to represent Yorkshire at the National Final at the British Library in June.

Beckfoot pupil Felix Bunting impressed the judges with his questioning from the floor and he was named Best Individual.

His colleague Edward Ford also picked up the Commended Individual prize.

Justine Brian, director of the competition, said: “The debaters were taken out of their comfort zone by tackling these topics in such a prestigious venue. The quality of debaters from Yorkshire this year was again exceptionally high, the arguments presented by Beckfoot School were sharp and on point and, thus, they were crowned worthy winners.”