Sixth-formers from Kirkham Grammar School are preparing to take on fellow students from the North West and North Wales in the Regional Final of the Institute of Ideas and Pfizer Debating Matters Competition, the national competition for sixth formers.

The Economic and Social Research Council sponsor the North West and North Wales Region and are including the event in their Festival of Social Science programme.

The final will be held at the Museum of Science and Industry in Manchester on 10 March.

Having entered the competition for the second time this year, the Kirkham students have only ever reached the qualifying round of the competition.

With an extra push this year, the team triumphed against two seasoned Debating Matters teams, Withington Girls School and Queen Elizabeth's Grammar School in their local qualifying round in November.

But as the regional final date gets closer, tension mounts for the debating novices as the stakes are raised and they prepare to meet fellow champions from across the region.

Not only will the winner of the North West and North Wales Regional Final gain a place at the National Final in July, they will also win with £1000 worth of book vouchers for their school library, donated by the competitions prize sponsors, Hodder Murray.

Teams at the North West and North Wales final will be discussing a range of burning issues, including whether the footballers deserve all the money and rewards they receive, if complementary and alternative medicine should be provided on the NHS, whether nuclear is the way forward and if globalisation is good for the developing world.

The Debating Matters Competition has a well-earned reputation of bringing a fresh approach to schools debating.

In this competition, substance comes before style and ideas and young people are taken seriously.

That's why the honest and constructive criticism from a panel of expert judges plays a crucial part in the competition.

Judges grill the students with challenging questions and then give them feedback and advice - all in front of an audience.

Students will face some prestigious judges at the North West Final, including the BBC's Executive Producer of Religion and Ethics, Christine Morgan, Emeritus Professor of Geriatric Medicine at the University of Manchester, Raymond Tallis, North of England Correspondent for Channel 4 News, Nick Martin and the teenage novelist Sherry Ashworth.