09 September 2021
Martin Luthur King, Deepak Chopra, Greta Thunberg. What do all of these personalities have in common? The art of storytelling. The art of capturing hearts and minds. The art of public speaking. This is the art of oratory.
We are all aware that the art of oratory is an important skill than transcends careers and cultures. Our students all have the opportunity to develop these skills through their time at the School. However, our Year 5 students were involved in an internal competition where the finalists were invited to present their pitches to Mr Tim Browning, Mrs Jasmine Taylor, and Mr Jon Gelsthorpe.
Two of these finalists were invited to the IPSHA Junior Orator competition where they presented among the state’s finest speakers. The students had rehearsed a speech but were also expected to present a three-minute speech on an unsighted topic with only twenty minutes’ preparation time. Feedback from many of the audience members commended our students on their ability to not only be excellent speakers, but also demonstrate agility in their thinking and draw upon a breadth of content in order to connect with the audience.
Aarit Kothari won second place and Navinder Takhar third place in the Year 5 Competition.
Jon Gelsthorpe
Deputy Head of Junior School – Teaching and Learning