MORPETH school pupils became world leaders for the day — and it was a successful hit with judges at a North East debating competition.
A team of Modern Foreign Languages students from King Edward VI High School did a 'G20' sketch where they donned face masks to play the parts of Barack Obama, Gordon Brown, Nicolas Sarkozy and Angela Merkel among others to show the importance of bein
g able to communicate with each other.
Year 12s Ella Ward-Baker, Vincent Simpson, Daniel Kirkup, Catherine O'Mahony, Jenn Perry, Rosie Phillips and Olivia Battrum and Year 11s Charlie Trotter and Tim Merrey then did a presentation based on the statement 'Everyone at school in England should learn a foreign language until they are 18'.
Afterwards they faced questions about it from the other teams taking part, who were from Durham Johnston Comprehensive School, Newcastle College, The King's Academy Middlesbrough, the English Martyrs School and Sixth Form College, as well as a team from the KEVI Debating Society.
And the group of nine impressed so much that they were declared the winners of the 'Let's Talk about Europe' event at Durham County Hall, organised by Europe Direct North East.
Vincent said: "Our message was that if we learn foreign languages, we will get on better with other countries and cultures.
"Our G20 sketch was a fun way to show how important this is, then our serious presentation discussed the political, economic, social and environmental issues involved.
"It came as a bit of a surprise when we were announced the winners, as when they said King Edward I thought it was going to be our other team.
"The judges said we performed well as a team, with all members making an equal contribution, and that definitely helped as some teams had some people speaking more than others."
The students were awarded with a trophy and a trip to Belfast to visit the Stormont parliament and explore the city.
Head of Modern Foreign Languages and German teacher Irene Walmsley said: "They used Dutch, German and French during their presentation and they were the types of issues they will talk about and questions they will get in their exams, so it was a very useful competition for them.
"The team was up against stiff opposition and they only had a week to prepare, but they did fantastically well to win it and this will be great for their confidence."
