District 1180 Final Youth Speaks 2017 - Catrin Finch Centre, Glyndwr Uni, Wrexham

On Friday March 3rd 2017 the District Rotary Youth Speaks competition took place at the Catrin Finch Centre, Glyndwr University.

There were 7 teams entered in the Intermediate Competition with the team from Moreton Hall representing our area talking about "Today's Technology" . The Moreton Hall team comprised Cordelia Harpin, Charlotte Brown and Emma Vivian.  Unfortunately they were not selected but the adjudicators chose Flint High School talking on " Kindness" and Rydal Penrhos debating " Guilt is it good or bad?" to go forward to the Regional Final.

The Senior Competition was very competitive with 11 teams entered. Oswestry School were our representatives speaking on the topic "Down Syndrome : To be or not to be?". 2 teams were selected to go forward to the next round, our team and Birkenhead School who spoke about "The Pursuit of Perfection". The Oswestry School team team comprised of Chairperson Matthew Cooper, Speaker Sebastian Banks, Vote of Thanks Adelina Creciun with Sebastian Banks deemed to be the best Speaker on the night.

Oswestry Rotary Club's Youth Speaks organiser Jenny Edwards, who had attended the District final along with members Sue Leonard, Mark Liquorish and Mike Griffiths, observed that "what made Oswestry a successful team was their support of each other and their obvious determination to make theirs a winning story.  Well done to all including their teacher Ruth Huish (Head of English) and the best of luck in the 3rd round of this prestigious competition."

The Regional Final will be held on Saturday 25th March 2017 at Darwen Vale High School, Blackburn Road, Darwen, BB3 OAL.

Sue Leonard and Jenny Edwards
Photos: Mark Liquorish and Jenny Edwards