The grand final for House Public Speaking took place on the evening of Friday 1st May.
The competition consists of two events: Public Speaking in which participants write and deliver a short speech on a topic of their choice, and Prose & Verse which sees them read a short extract from a book, and pick a poem of their choice to recite. There are four categories: Year 7, Juniors (Years 8/9), Intermediates (Years 10/11) and Seniors (Years 12/13).
Heats took place last half-term during lunchtimes, with the top 2 in each category progressing through to the final.
A remarkable 99 students took part in the heats, which made for some very challenging judging! All finalists should therefore feel a real sense of achievement in getting put through. Each house was represented by at least one finalist, showing how wide the participation was across houses.
In a wonderfully joyous evening, every participant performed with commitment, skill and a real sense of enjoyment. Topics covered included the power of failure, the value of crying, a reflective piece about the dangers of AI, as well as more humourful deliveries.
Every competitor should be extremely proud of how they engaged with their performance, but if I was to pick a couple of stand-outs it would be Yusuf R. for his speech on student group work which had Mr Murray and myself in fits of giggles throughout, alongside the Junior Public Speaking category, in which Rhys U., Maxwell C. and Tom P-H gave wonderfully contrasting and brilliantly delivered speeches – all would have been worthy winners.
In the overall event, Livingstone just piped Scott to 3rd place, with Churchill-Gorden coming 2nd. The win went to Darwin-Wilberforce, further strengthening their lead in the overall House Championship Leaderboard.
I would like to express my sincere gratitude to everyone for making the evening happen, including Mr Liddy for judging the heats, Mr Williams for his adjudication, the housemasters for supporting the event, all the parents, families and friends who attended, and Mr McCann who has run public speaking for decades prior to his retirement last year. However my biggest thanks go to the wonderful students who gave such wholehearted performances, and more generally give so much to this amazing school. I only hope they enjoyed the evening half as much as I did.