Nairn Academy’s Senior Debating Team have been named the North of Scotland Schools Debating Champions, beating 11 other schools to claim the John Alan Cameron memorial quaich.
The team, made up of sixth year pupils Finlay Allmond and Caitlin Sherret, opposed the motion that ‘this house would ban keeping animals as pets’.
The joy of winning is nothing new for Caitlin though; former pupil Jade Du Preez won the competition with Caitlin last year. 2015 marks the fifth time the school has won the competition in seven years – however Caitlin is the only Nairn pupil to ever win twice.
Finlay also became the fourth pupil from Nairn Academy to be awarded the Dr Winnie Ewing Cup for Best Speaker. After three initial rounds competing against teams from across Highland the team travelled to Aberdeen where they fought the final at St Margaret’s School for Girls.
The team were coached to victory by Deputy Rector Mr John Chalmers who has coached all of Nairn’s winning teams. After leaving school Finlay wishes to study International Relations after completing a gap year program in Peru, whilst Caitlin wishes to travel to London to study at Drama. The pair haven’t stopped debating yet though with preparations already underway for the Law Society of Scotland Debating Competition which got underway on the 3rd December.