Posted on: 19/11/2024Posted on: November 20th 2015
Youth Speaks
Youth Speaks is an annual competition run by the Rotary Club each year for schools across the country. The aim of the competition is to promote public speaking and encourage young people to get involved.
Our School entered two teams into the competition. Each team is split into two categories, an Intermediate Team (11-13) and a Senior Team (14-18). The team is made up of three people, A Chairperson: who introduces the team and the topic, they speak for two minutes. A Speaker: who speaks for six minutes on a specific topic. Lastly, a Vote of Thanks: who also speaks for two minutes, comments on the topic and thanks those in attendance for coming.
This year the local final, (which is held at the Spelthorne Council Chambers), six local schools entered with ten teams taking part; four entries in the Intermediate category and six in the Senior Category. The standard of entries was exceptionally high and resulted in the judges deliberating for an hour, before informing the teams of the result.
I am proud to announce that our School wowed the judges and clearly made an impact on the evening. David came away with the Best Senior Chairperson award, which was his goal to reach after chairing the team for the last three years! Well done, David. Sadly, the Senior Team did not advance to the next round, although their efforts were absolutely outstanding. Well done Imani and Elisa.
The Intermediate Team, however, won the Category. They now advance to the second round. (Date and venue to be confirmed). Not only this, Rocco animated and awe-inspiring Chairperson speech captivated the judges and the audience. He won The Best Intermediate Chairperson award; he was individually praised by the lead adjudicator as 'the pocket rocket'! Well done, Rocco! Furthermore, Emily speech inspired us all and made us see that we are all heroes. Emily won the Best Intermediate Speaker award, well done Emily. Abbie, was an outstanding Vote of thanks and concluded the team's speeches beautifully. Well done, Abbie.
I would like to finish with a thank you myself. It has been a privilege to work with such outstanding pupils. Their hard work and presentations at the competition were superb; I could not be more proud of you!
Well done, team Youth Speaks!
