Pupils from four secondary schools met for a verbal showdown in the council chamber at Hammersmith Town Hall last Tuesday, June 22.

They each put forward their cases on issues ranging from the merits of single sex schools to allowing women soldiers to fight in the frontline during the semi-finals and finals of the borough's first secondary schools' debating competition.

The event followed an earlier round, in which six schools took part. Debating societies have been established at all the participating schools. The contest, which will become an annual event, is co-ordinated by the council and the English-Speaking Union, which organises regional and national public speaking competitions.

The winners of the borough competition, a team of girls from Sacred Heart High School, in Hammersmith, were presented with a trophy by the mayor, Cllr Charlie Treloggan, after successfully arguing their case against women soldiers being allowed to fight in the frontline. The motion in favour of women fighting on the frontline was proposed during the final by a team of boys from Henry Compton School, in Fulham.

The Sacred Heart team will have the chance to compete in a London-wide competition on 6 July. All the schools who took part were given an inscribed gavel to use in their debating societies, which were established in the run-up to the contest.

Cllr Treloggan said: "Encouraging young people to develop their public speaking skills gives a tremendous boost to their self-confidence and analytical skills. These pupils have all had great fun debating complex and emotive issues and putting forward their best arguments for and against. We hope some of them will go on to use these skills to put forward their views on local services and get involved in community issues and projects.

This is one of a number of initiatives that the council is running with the help of money from the government's Excellence in Cities programme, which funds a wide range of extra academic and creative opportunities for local pupils. We would like to thank the English-Speaking Union for their support in co-ordinating the competition."

The semi-finalists were Hurlingham & Chelsea School and Lady Margaret School, both from Fulham. Fulham Cross, in Fulham, and Burlington Danes, in Shepherds Bush, took part in the previous round.

Each school had a team of three speakers, aged 12 to 16, and supporters of up to ten pupils from each school were invited to cheer their classmates on.

Pupils taking part in the debating competition were identified as 'gifted and talented' through the Excellence in Cities (EiC) programme. The council's EiC team organised workshops with a drama and language consultant to help pupils sharpen their debating skills as well as running training sessions for teachers at the schools.

The semi-finals and finals were judged by the council's education director, Sandy Adamson, the council's adviser on citizenship and personal, social and health education, Jan Goulstone, and Ethel Tungohan, from the English-Speaking Union.

Heather Rothwell, the council's advisory teacher for able pupils, chaired yesterday's debates. She said: "The standard of debate was exceptional. The schools' debating societies prepared the pupils really well.