Public Speaking Champions

Congratulations to Year 10/11 pupils for winning the northern region finals of the ESU Public Speaking competition, which was held at the Gateshead Speakers Chamber on Tyneside. Speaker Ali Ijaz (Yr 10), Chairperson Eloise Richer (Yr 11),  Questioner Amelia Osborne (Yr 11) and Team mentor, Jessica Blaker, competed against five other schools in the prestigious English Speaking Union contest. 

The winning speech, performed by Ali Ijaz, was entitled “American influence upon British society is regrettable”. It was performed with a perfect blend of humour, coupled with a serious message. It was well received and he received more questions from the audience than any other speaker!

Amelia, who played the role of Questioner, had to question an opposing team, who talked about “Eccentricity being a quality to be valued”. Amelia asked some intelligent, challenging questions that complimented the speaker.  All three team members were perfect in their timing (which gets marked) and were confident and professional in their delivery.

The Red House pupils received a silver trophy to keep for a year and Ali also won the overall prize for “best performance”, following in the footsteps of Bethany Crawford who won the same prize for Red House last year.

One of the three judges, was “Grundy” from the TV series "Grundy's Wonders". He was very complimentary about the performance of the Red House pupils.  

The prize winning pupils will now attend the next round at Leeds Grammar School on Saturday the 6th March where they will deliver a speech entitled “Prenuptial agreements should be made compulsory”.

Well done to all pupils for all their hard work and commitment and also a big thank you to Miss Smith, English teacher, for her encouragement, enthusiasm and support.