Youth Speaks Results

Youth Speaks is the public-speaking competition for teams of three, a chairman, a main speaker and a vote of thanks.  It is in two age groups, Upper(14-18 year olds) and Intermediate (11-14 year olds) There were two local heats in November and, as a result, both Upper and Intermediate teams from Bishops Hatfield Girls and Dame Alice Owens schools and two Intermediate teams from Chancellors School went through to the District semifinals in January, which were extremely hard-fought.  Both the Bishops Hatfield teams and one of the Chancellors teams won through to the District final where there were six teams in each section.  

There were some fascinating topics, including an impassioned plea that “We should maintain the Union” on Scottish Independence, the down side of Christmas, Mancinism (left-handedness, in case you are wondering!) and “Are men stronger than women?”.   It was an excellent evening at Rothamstead Research and Conference Centre in Harpenden but with only one team from each section progressing to the Regional final.    Regrettably none of our local teams won that honour, Parmiters School Watford winning the Upper section and Hitchin Boys School the Intermediate competition,  but all our teams acquitted themselves very well and India Hammond from Bishops Hatfield was chosen as the best chairman in the Upper section.