Hackney student argues his way to world debating championships
Great orator: Ife Grillo is fourth state school student ever to make national schools debate team. Photograph: Annabel Moeller
A student from Bridge Academy has talked his way into the England schools debating team – normally the preserve of those from top private schools.
Ife Grillo, 17, will form part of the England team with students from Eton, Westminster, Dulwich College and Alleyn’s School, verbally battling it out in the World Schools Debating Championships in Stuttgart in July.
He will be the fourth state school student to represent England at the World Schools Debating Championships, which began in 1988.
He is also the first ever member of the team to have been coached by Debate Mate, an educational charity that targets hundreds of schools with above average numbers of children entitled to free school meals.
The Bridge Academy did not even have a debating society before the charity got involved.
Ife described learning he made the England team as “surreal”.
After joining Debate Mate in Year 8, Ife advanced through the state debating system but said he struggled when faced with private school students, renowned for dominating the competition.
“When you compete against people from top institutions, even when you are better you can feel beneath them,” he said.
He admits his toughest challenge in debating has always been confidence.
“I was really lucky to go to a school like the Bridge Academy where aspiration was encouraged and I had staff who saw greatness in me long before I did.”
The local teenager said he has always loved Hackney and hoped he would not be “the last Hackney kid” to debate for the country.
Ife is a member of the UK Youth parliament for Hackney, vice-chairman of the British Youth Council and a Debate Mate mentor.
Bridge Academy Principal Chris Brown described Ife as a “brilliant student.”
“We are enormously proud of Ife, and we wish him the very best of luck for the competition,” he said.
Ife recently expressed his gratitude to Debate Mate on Twitter:
I didn’t realise my life was about to change when I entered a @Debate_Mate all those years ago. An organisation truly changing the world ❤️
— Mr Ife Grillo (@IfeGrillo) November 11, 2015