By Mrs Graves (Head of English)

This year’s Year 9 Public Speaking competition presented the judges with an even tougher challenge than speaking in front of an audience of over 100 of their peers and teachers: they needed to decide on a winner from an impressive set of performances!

Ten finalists were chosen- two from each English class- but within those ten performances there was huge diversity in topics and performance styles. The audience heard impassioned speeches about the impact of oil spills on marine life, the growing problem of overpopulation, and were challenged to think about whether keeping pets was similar in some ways to keeping wild animals in zoos. Getting to the heart of a matter which engaged many in the audience, Hania presented a well-thought out argument on why chocolate is so much better than other sweets and CC reminded us about the importance of maintaining linguistic diversity. Amongst a group of speakers who delivered strong performances, Megan Robertson’s winning speech took us back to our childhoods as she considered how we should feel about the censorship of Roald Dahl novels, and what might come next if literary censorship is allowed to continue.

One of the overarching themes of Year 9 English is to consider how different literary texts allow us to explore ideas about concern for society, and public speaking encourages students to go one step further and think about how they can use their voices to effect change in the world. The performances given by the finalists were an excellent representation of the powerful voices that the students are developing; they were articulate, imaginative and engaging communicators. The audience also played a vital role in the success of the event, showing really good listening skills and demonstrating the strong sense of mutual respect amongst the year group.

The event was a wonderful opportunity for the students to both experience the formality of a public speaking competition and celebrate each other’s successes. We would like to extend a particular thank you to our adjudicators, Mrs Cora Oldfield (previously Head of English at Bedford High School) and Dr Dwamena from the Mathematics Department, who brought their own experiences and views on the performances to the table.

Congratulations to all of the finalists: Megan Robertson (1st place) Lizzie Small (commended) Tami Oginni (commended) Jasmine Murray (commended) Siri Chukka, Poppy Clarke, CC Linden, Hania Tauqeer, Kara Farquhar, Coco Chater.