Public Speaking by Grace Roberts, Y10.5 I love holidays’, to the more abstract, ‘Why I hate hairy stickers’, which left some of the audience inspired by the sheer ridiculousness of the chosen themes!
The art of public speaking is valid in many aspects of one’s career, whether it is in discussion, speech making or discovering new elements of confidence within a person. Public speaking is also an important stepping stone for each child in English as it encourages them to put forward ideas and points of view in a confident, mature and educated manner. The English department recently embarked on a public speaking course which ran through Y7-Y10. The course was designed to improve the skills of not only public speaking, but also in writing a presentable and engaging speech. The students were guided through various ways to write speeches and were shown works from successful speakers from across the globe, including the inspiring inauguration speech of President Barack Obama, which was recognised by many of the students involved.
After viewing the many speeches, students were required to select various techniques used such as the rule of three, rhetorical questions and in some cases, doses of humour. The techniques that were learned took a strong base in many successful speeches throughout the course. Although many students found the task slightly challenging at first, after being guided through different ways to present and write an entertaining and in some cases, absurd and humorous speech, they enjoyed the performing aspect of the task. The topic given to the students was a simple ‘Why I love or hate... a certain issue, reference or thing’, which gave students plenty of room for creative and varied responses. Students were encouraged to pick topics as humorous as they could come up with and were then asked to write a speech on these. The ideas ranged from the relatively tame, ‘Why
Although ridiculous in nature, the speeches were delivered with character, passion and humour and many students felt that the experience was a gratifying one. The speeches were marked for content and the skill with which they were presented, and the best speeches from each year group were put forward to compete in the public speaking competition which will take place next term. The students selected as finalists for the public speaking competition for their ‘Why I love or hate…’ speeches are: Bradley Goldstein, Y8.3 cartoons; Alfie Harrison, Y8.3 - coca cola; Daniel Osenius-Eite,Y10.6 - coca cola; Sophie Davis Y10.7 art galleries; Chloe Spooner, Y10.4 - orange faces; Daniel Williams, Y9.1 - wastage; Grace Burton, Y7.5 - being short; George Henderson, Y8.3 underwear; Jack Spooner, Y8.6 - adverts; Alex Herriott, Y10.7 - McDonalds; Pranav Dhingra, Y9.1 - cows! Watch this space for the results of what is sure to be an entertaining and enlightening competition!