30 June 2023
In Week 9, the Middle Years Public Speaking Competition allowed students to showcase their public speaking prowess. The competition, in its second year, offers students the opportunity to build their self-advocacy skills.
As part of the Year 8 pastoral program, students learnt about the importance of self-advocacy during Mentor sessions. All Year 8 students presented a persuasive speech to their fellow classmates throughout Term 2. Their speeches included a broad range of topics, all related to their current interests or concerns, such as school policies, climate change and humanitarian injustices. Each Mentor class selected a winner to represent their cohort in the competition finals. Year 7 students were also invited to participate in a round of semi-finals.
Congratulations to each finalist, representing their respective Mentor classes, as outlined below.
- CDH: Krishn Arora
- DBT: Henry Lehman
- JJG: Caleb Scott
- JWF: Ned Manifold
- LJF: Zac Di Bucchianico
- PBS: Andrew Ung
- VAN: Daniel Cao
During the finals, students presented their prepared speeches and performed an additional impromptu speech. In only 15-minutes, finalists created an approximately two-minute speech responding to one of the following topics:
- It’s Not Fair
- Right or Left
- Friends
All students performed fantastic speeches sharing their criticisms of society, their view of choices and opportunities, and the importance of friendship.
A particular congratulations to the competition winner, Ned Manifold, who presented his prepared speech on the topic of gun violence. Ned also presented an impactful impromptu speech examining our privilege in First World countries, in response to the prompt “It’s Not Fair”.
Congratulations Ned! It was wonderful to see all Middle Years boys advocate for their passions.
Nia O’Loughlin
Coordinator of Public Speaking
