Seven schools took part in the competition, held at Debden Park High School, with the students debating for or against a Motion “That this House believes that Britain’s interests would have been better served by the election of Mitt Romney rather than Barack Obama as President of the United States of America”.

The Roding Valley team of Fraser Barclay and Jonathan Schroder were judged the winners with the Davenant Foundation School team of Paul Dean and Deborah Koranteng second.

The judges were county councillor Valerie Metcalfe, Theydon Bois Primary School head teacher Elspeth Bonds, Epping Forest Conservative Association chairman Simon Jones and Everything Epping Forest owner/editor David Jackman.

Mrs Laing said: “It was a great competition, the standard was really high. It actually went on a bit longer than usual because so many people made such excellent interventions and they really believed in what they were saying.

“The debate was really exciting and the audience liked it too – the more lively it is the better!”

Fraser, 15, said: “I just found it such an enjoyable experience. I’ve never done this sort of thing before.”

Also taking part was Debden Park High School (Phillip Cook and Rowan Wyllie), St John’s School (Adrianne Mercer and Calum Canavan), Braeside School (Megan Todd and Kitty Atkins), Chigwell School (Olisa Maduegbuna and Lauren Drabwell) and West Hatch High School (Adil Sait and Hadley Hewitt-Chick).