Bermuda High School students dominated this week as pupils from local schools and abroad honed their debate and public-speaking skills at the 2015 Bermuda Public Speaking and Debate Tournament.

Over the course of the tournament, a multi-day event that took place on February 28 and on March 2 and 3 — organised and hosted by BHS — 54 students competed in debate and public speaking events.

Those involved included BHS, Dynamic Debaters, Mount Saint Agnes, Saltus and Warwick Academy in addition to six students who came from St John's Ravenscourt School in Winnipeg, Canada.

The debate portion of the tournament consisted of eight middle school teams and six high school teams competing in two rounds of prepared debate and one round of impromptu debate.

The middle school final round saw teams from Warwick Academy and Saltus debating the motion “This House believes cellphones should be banned in schools”.

After much deliberating by judges David Notman, Adrienne Smatt, and Steven White, Warwick Academy were declared the winners, with Saltus coming in second place. Top Individual speaking awards went to: 1 BHS, Charlotte Frumkin; 2 BHS, Cree Dunn; 3 Dynamic Debaters, Ryley Mason.

The senior final pitted experienced debaters Megan Sutcliffe, William Campbell, and Namrata Bisht from BHS against Saltus veteran debaters Liam Peniston, Kayla Dowling, and Nalani Dowling.

After a heated debate over the motion, “This House would make gap years mandatory”, judges Akila Beckles, Justice Stephen Hellman, and Eoin McMahon awarded the win to BHS with Saltus' senior team coming in second place.

Top Individual speaking awards went to: 1 Saltus, Liam Peniston; 2 Saltus & BHS, Kayla Dowling and Megan Sutcliffe; 3 Saltus, Nalani Dowling.

Twenty-one students also participated in the public speaking portion of the tournament, which took place at Suite Solutions on March 2 and 3.

These students competed in Dramatic Interpretation, Interpretive Reading, After-Dinner Speaking, Cross Examination, Radio Newscast, and Impromptu Speaking — many for the first time.

At the closing banquet, individual prizes were awarded to the top six outstanding speakers in middle school and senior school debate as well as the top three winners from each public speaking category. Awards were also presented to the overall top three outstanding public speakers from middle school and the top five from senior school.