Youth Speaks - the public speaking competition

The local heats of this national competition were held recently, with a Potters Bar/Brookmans Park heat and a Welwyn/Hatfield heat being organised by Mid Herts Rotary.  The competition gives students the opportunity to develop their public speaking and presentation skills. There are two age groups for the competition, Intermediate (11-13 year olds) and Senior (14-17 year olds), each team being made up of 3 students.

Dame Alice Owen Intermediate Winners

Dame Alice Owen Senior Winners

Brookmans Park and Potters Bar Rotary clubs held their heat at Dame Alice Owen's school on 19th November and  there were 5 Intermediate teams and 3 Senior teams. The teams were from Chancellors, Dame Alice Owen's and Mount Grace schools. The topics included 'Homework Should Be Reduced', 'The Effects Of Video Games' and 'The Importance Of Languages'. It made for a very interesting evening and gave the judges a very hard task of selecting winners. The Intermediate winners were Mimi Zhao, Oisin McGoldrick and Ben Jacobs from Dame Alice Owen's arguing for 'Restrictions On Free Speech' and the Senior winners were Jacob Davies, Robert Tomlinson and Annabelle Toon also from Dame Alice Owen's arguing very convincingly that 'Males Should Be Allowed To Wear Make-Up'.

The Welwyn Hatfield competitors

Welwyn GC Rotary Club organised the Welwyn Hatfield heat on 22nd November at Monks Walk School with teams from Monks Walk and Onslow St Audreys Schools taking part with three Intermediate teams and two Senior teams.  Topics included the dangers of the Guinness Book of World Records, raising the legal alcohol age and whether illegal downloading is killing the music industry.  The winners of the Intermediate section were Megan Bonfield, Luke Penson and Youcef Solomon of Monks Walk School speaking on "Titanic:Man's Vanity" and, in the Senior section Jack Bonfield, Adam Penson and Joel Khalili also of Monks Walk on the subject of “Hermitry”.  Again the judges had a hard time adjudicating after a very interesting and entertaining evening.The winning teams will now go on to the District semi-finals in Hitchin and Luton at the beginning of February and we wish them all the very best of luck.