Youth Speaks

Students from all over Staffordshire and Shropshire took part in the Rotary District 1210 Final of this public speaking competition.

The Rotary Youth Speaks Competition is organised for students aged between 11 and 17 attending Schools and Youth organizations throughout the British Isles and the whole of Ireland. The competition is designed to help young people achieve what is a vital necessity in today’s world – confidence in their own ability to stand up and speak in front of an audience.

Individual Rotary Clubs run their own local competitions and the winners were invited to Penkridge to take part in the District Competition, which will be followed by a Regional heat in March with the Grand Finals in London in April.

Ten teams of three took part, and the competition was organised in two age groups, the intermediate group (aged 11 to 13) and the senior group (aged 14 to 17).

The evening was given a excellent start with the intermediate team from St Dominic’s Priory School in Stone asking if ‘Society is too Nosy’, and Church Stretton School discussing the ‘Cult of Celebrity’. Winners of this group were the team from Thomas Telford School who gave an interesting presentation on ‘Growing Pains’

Then it was on to the Senior competition with teams from Concord College (Church Stretton/Shrewsbury), Ludlow College, Blessed Robert Johnson Catholic College (Telford), St Dominic’s Priory (Stone), Thomas Telford School (Telford) , Westwood College (Leek) and Newcastle-under Lyme School taking part.

And what a range of subjects these students discussed – Popular Culture, Poverty, Body Image, Immigration, Cannabis and one team wondering who would win if a gorilla and a tiger had a fight!

The winners were also from Thomas Telford College – with an impressive talk on violence in video games. Their main speaker, Holly Wild, is hoping to become an airline pilot and she certainly piloted her way very well through a complex argument.

Runners up in this group were Concord College – their main speaker Yap Zhi Min only arrived in this country from Singapore in January and she did her best to convince the audience that Popular Culture is the language of young people.

The two winning teams now go on to the Regional Finals at Church Stretton on the 9th March when they will meet up with teams drawn from South Wales, the West of England as far south as Somerset and throughout the Midlands.

Rotary’s District Governor, Peter Barke, remarked at the end of the evening just how impressed he was with the young people who had taken part in the competition.

The first picture, at left, shows the The Thomas Telford School winning intermediate team (Charlotte Skinner, Charlotte Lampit and Tom Cardiff) with Rotary’s District Governor Peter Barke and their trophy.

The second picture, on the right, shows The Thomas Telford School winning senior team ( Emma Murray,
Holly Wild and Gina Tarantonio) also with Rotary’s District Governor Peter Barke and their trophy.