POLITICS may not loom large in the minds of three Simon Langton Boys School sixth formers, but their oratory skills in a national competition has revealed they could go far in government.

Head girl Rebecca Moss, 17, Chris O'Brien and Michael Sweetman, both 18, scooped three of the top awards in the Citizenship Foundation National Youth Parliament competition.

The school's team entry was submitted as a DVD and featured House of Commons main speakers, backbenchers and hecklers in a debate on a proposed Bill to allow religious items in the work place.

The pressure was on to repeat last year's performance which won Simon Langton Boys' the coveted team title.

The trio impressed the judges, with Chris getting the vote as best prime minister, Michael best leader of the opposition, and Rebbeca's performance as a rank and file MP winning her the best backbencher award.

They shrugged off stiff competition from more than 170 schools to reach the final.

The school's outstanding success was completed with a hard-fought second place in the prime minister's question time section of the competition.

Simon Langton Boys' has won the overall competition twice, most recently last year, and has taken a number of individual awards.

Rebecca, who has taken AS levels in history, religious studies, English, art and theatre studies, said: "I haven't really thought too much about politics before, but I do try to take a general interest."

Assistant head teacher Alan Jones said he was delighted with the successes.

"The team has done it entirely by themselves. The school is extremely proud of the prize winners and everyone involved," he said.