English Speaking Union

On Tuesday evening, six of our students took part in the first round of this year’s English-Speaking Union Public Speaking Competition. Our year 10 team and year 11 team were pitted against two teams from Roedean and one from Willingdon Community School.

This first round is conducted over Zoom, which presents its own challenges – not least of which is the potential for technical issues! Our two teams were undeterred and unfazed, however.

Each team is comprised of three roles: the chairperson, who leads the debate, the speaker, who delivers a speech, and the questioner, whose role is to question the speaker following their speech. Each speaker is paired with a chair and questioner from another school.

After a brief opportunity to (virtually) meet the people they’d been paired with for the debate, it was go time! Stanley was up first with the chairperson and questioner from Willingdon. Although it would have been understandable to be nervous about going first, Stanley was admirably composed as he delivered his perceptive speech on the perils of social media. He delivered astute warnings about the dangers of social media: judgement, the proliferation of fake news, and the danger of succumbing to an echo chamber. However, he also combined this with practical tips we can all take to lessen the grip social media has over us, such as silencing notifications and even removing our phones from the room we sleep in.

Next up was the turn of the rest of our year 11 team – George and Kip. Given that these two were dubbed the ‘favourite double act of the night’ in the judges’ feedback at the end of the evening, it’s no surprise that they formed a charismatic duo. George was enthusiastic, engaging and dealt well with a challenging situation (when no audience questions were forthcoming!). Kip was able to cut through to the issues at the heart of his speaker’s speech and didn’t shy away from uncomfortable topics such as the role of prejudice relating to poverty.

After year 11, it was now the turn of the year 10 team to shine. Evie delivered a fantastic speech about mental health which again touched on the impact of social media. She urged us to focus on maintaining positive mental health and good practice for our wellbeing, rather than solely fixating on the negative, in her rallying ‘call to arms’ for a proactive, rather than reactive, approach to mental health.

Bill and Greg rounded up the rest of our fabulous year 10 team. Bill was a natural in the role of chairperson: personable, confident, and not afraid to take charge of the timings (a key component of the chairperson’s role). Greg followed up with insightful questions to explore his speaker’s topic in more depth while maintaining a friendly and courteous dialogue with the speaker.

We were absolutely delighted when both teams made it through to the next round of the competition. They all gave incredible performances and we’re very excited to see where the competition will take them.

Best of luck for round two!