Public Speaking – Double Success

The Bishop’s Stortford Rotary Club “Youth Speaks” competition is an event in which our students always perform very well and so it proved again this year

The Senior section (Year 10 and above) was contested by only five teams, two each from TBSHS and our hosts, Bishop’s Stortford College and one from Herts and Essex. Our Year 10 team, fielding two students new to “Youth Speaks” had the misfortune to be drawn to speak first. ‘Old hand’ Alec Sneddon, as Chairman, introduced the rest of the team and their topic “The sky is red” with a confident, well-paced performance.

The main speaker, Fin Macfie admitted that several of the very believable facts (such as “Fin has only had one day’s absence from school since Year 7”) offered by Alec were, like the title, untrue. He then pointed out how easy it was to manufacture such examples of ‘fake news’ and expanded on the dangers of this trend. Fin presented his well-constructed speech extremely well, with plenty of vocal expression and engagement with the audience. He was very well supported by Semir Emara, who proposed a vote of thanks that ‘ticked all the boxes’. He spoke confidently and clearly, praising Fin’s grasp of the subject and tackling the difficult task of commenting on Fin’s answer to the obligatory audience question with aplomb. Under Mr Shortland’s expert guidance, this comparatively inexperienced trio produced a polished performance that demonstrated excellent teamwork.

Semir, Fin & Alec                                                                                                           Oliver, Henry & Emily

The TBSHS Year 12 team spoke fourth, chaired by ‘veteran’ Oliver Worthy, in his fourth appearance in this competition. Oliver introduced the topic “Have you heard this speech before?”, informing the audience that speaker Henry Aylett, another ‘old hand’ plays American Football for Hertfordshire Cheetahs. He also told us that the third member of the team, Emily Precious, would be appearing in the school production of “Oliver”. Chairman Oliver’s manner was warm and confident, getting the presentation off to a great start. Henry’s wide-ranging speech, delivered with only a few glances at his notes, was a real tour de force. He began by pointing out that he must have uttered almost every word in his speech before in the same building, before going on to explain how false links made by the human brain cause the experience of déjà vu. However, he pointed out, man is one of very few creatures that can innovate and good new concepts can spring from previously fruitless ideas. Henry’s extremely engaging manner and unusual choice of subject held the audience’s attention and was described by one of the judges as “like a really good TED talk”. It was hard to believe that Emily, who gave an excellent vote of thanks, had only been drafted into the team a few hours before in place of the unwell India Purton., Emily delivered India’s well-constructed speech with panache and added her own thoughts on the way that Henry answered the audience member who asked if any piece of music is truly original.

After refreshments, the judges returned and pronounced the TBSHS Sixth Form team the winners, with a team from the College, who discussed the social effects of AI, in second place.

Our Year 10 students received a lot of positive feedback and, by my reckoning, probably achieved third place.

The following week it was the turn of younger students in the Intermediate section, once again with five teams taking part. The proceedings were opened by two polished teams from Herts & Essex, each featuring at least one of last year’s winners. They were followed by the TBSHS Year 9 team, coached by Mr Patterson and their topic “Fictional Reality”. Chairman Dan Carlin came across as relaxed and welcoming, introducing main speaker Thomas Leung, who lamented the demise of books in favour of modern technology. He argued that this trend had led to a general reduction in empathy, resulting in increased levels of conflict all over the world. Thomas made very good use of his voice, varying pace and pitch un a very engaging manner. .Sam Jurd rounded off a good team performance with a sound vote of thanks,

Next up was our Year 8 team, the youngest in the competition. As Chairman, Joshua Tsang, in the words of one of the judges, “exuded confidence from the moment he stood up”. Mocking the hairstyle and science fiction interests of speaker Noah Brown, he also told the audience that Noah was a very good debater with an extremely wide range of knowledge. He went on to describe the third team member Felix Evans as “a nerd, ahem, I mean mathematical prodigy”. Noah lived up to Joshua’s introduction by delivering a very well-constructed presentation entitled “The Magic Number”, which he revealed is three. Pointing out that groups of three characters frequently appear in traditional stories such as Goldilocks, he went to give some examples of the use of the Rule of Three in school mottos and advertising slogans, before explaining why the rule works so well. Noah spoke for well over five minutes without notes and really connected with his audience. Felix’s enthusiastic vote of thanks was equally impressive. He added some interesting information of his own and he managed the demanding task of commenting on Noah’s answer to the audience question in an exemplary manner.

After the final presentation, given by a team from the College that featured a very accomplished main speaker, and very welcome refreshments, the judges gave their verdict. They praised the quality of speaking throughout the evening and said that all the teams were separated by only a few points. A Herts & Essex team whose subject was “Fake News” were runners up. but the unanimous decision was that the winners were the TBSHS Year 8 team, Apparently the key factors in their victory were audience engagement, humour and the way that their speeches all complemented each other.

Sam, Dan & Thomas                                                                            Joshua, Felix and Noah

Thanks, as always, are due to the Rotary Club for organising “Youth Speaks”, Bishop’s Stortford College for hosting on both nights and the judges for their very helpful feedback and wise decisions. It was very good to see so many family members and fellow students supporting our speakers, who all worked very hard in preparation, performed so well and made the teachers who coached them very proud.

A,D,Fraser