The Chelmsford heats of the Rotary Youth Speaks competition were held at Hylands School on the evening of Tuesday, 29 January 2019. There were three teams competing in the Intermediate category and two in the Senior category.
Rtn Janice Goodman acted as MC and Rtn Keith Otter as Questioner. The adjudicators were Councillor John Aldridge, Tim Leeson, Youth Minister at Chelmsford Cathedral, and David Rayner, a partner in our business partner Birkett Long; David acted as Chair of the adjudicators. The timekeepers were Rtn Malcolm Hamlyn and Jess Elwell and Alexandra Zahariadi, also of Birkett Long; they’re the ones in the photograph.
The talks by the Intermediate teams (in the order of performance, which was determined by lot) were:
The Senior teams’ topics were:
After all the talks we had a break for refreshments while the adjudicators deliberated on the results. The Mayor, Rtn Yvonne Spence, and the Deputy Mayor, Christine Garrett, had been at another event earlier in the evening but arrived well in time to chat to people during the break and later present the prizes and certificates.
When everyone had reassembled, the adjudicators gave feedback on each team before announcing the results. The winning Intermediate teams was from New Hall School; they were the ones who had spoken on children’s communication skills. The team that had spoken on colours and moods, from Hylands School, won the Senior category.
[Update: We congratulate Darcie Meechan of New Hall School for being chosen by the adjudicators as Best Speaker at the District Intermedeiate Final on 6 February.]