An argumentative group of pupils from a Bushey school has won a regional debating competition.

Alex Platts, Jacob Reynolds, Shannon Serrao, Zoe Oppong, Mujina Kaindama, Leanne Carter and Sian Reed from Queens' School, in Aldenham Road, were crowned champions at the Debating Matters competition on Friday.

The group defeated several private schools and having made the final in four of the past six years, their teacher, Kevin Rooney, said the team is building quite a reputation.

He said: “It is brilliant and fantastic.

“I have to say they worked like dogs in preparation for it and I pushed them very hard.

“They all carved out the time and were prepared to work until nine or ten o'clock at night.

“It is a great thing to do and it's amazing to see some of the students change in front of your eyes the more they get into it.”

The team will now compete in the regional finals in July which has been whittled down to eight schools from an original 168.

Shannon said: “It was good to win, we all put a lot of work in and everyone had to prepare for the final.

“We were only given a few weeks on the topics and had to do our research before hand.

“These included the 2009 expenses scandal and whether or not we agreed with clinical trials.”

The team are then given a side to argue for and they must put their opinions, backed up by their research, forward to a panel of expert judges on the subject.

There is a culture of debate at the school and Mr Rooney says that it is something that most of the students try to get involved in.

Jacob said: "Some teams here only have four or five members in their debating team.

“We run weekly debates that are packed full of students from Year 7 upwards, challenging ideas on contemporary issues and not being shy of controversy.

“Often there is so much demand to attend the debates we don’t have space for all of the students.”

One of the judges, Leo Johnson, said: “It was brilliant. I’ve been stunned by the level of debate from the students.

“It’s what you dream of from public engagement events with young people who are armed with passion and facts.

“I was very impressed by the way in which debaters came back on the judges – one student, Jacob Reynolds, [of] Queens’ School, took a judge’s argument to pieces and the judge didn’t know how to respond and paused.”

The team will now prepare for the national finals in July, which has been scheduled on the same day as their end of year Sixth Form boat party.

Jacob added: “We will definitely be able to do both, we will make sure we will.”