Youth Speaks Local Competition 2023

Local Competition with Teams from Suninghill

TIt was fantastic to welcome students, patents and teachers from Sunninghill to our Youth Speaks Competition 25/1/23, as well as fellow Rotarians from neighbouring club Britt Valley. Although a small competition this year. It was fantastic to be able to hold it again after Covid cancellations and we have every hope it can grow next year and beyond as we had strong interest from St Osmunds. Thanks to David Illingworth for organising this event.

The topics under discussion were "should all animal farming be banned?" and "should the UK government change the voting age from 18 to 16?"

Thanks to the judges, Joan Cullington, Julian Snook and Tony Boyden, who had a tough time deciding between two very excellent teams.

How Youth Speaks works: The teams of 3 have to choose their topic, research it and prepare, so that on the night, each member speaks to explain and persuade the audience. The Chair person introduces the topic under debate and their team members, and makes the concluding statements. The Proposer makes their arguments for the topic and the Opposer offers counter arguments against the Proposer. Together they have to answer at least one unknown question from the audience.

As the judge summed up, the teams both spoke very well, with good pace and were clearly heard by the whole audience. The research was thorough and arguments were well constructed, with all of the students achieving something a lot of adults find difficult - speaking confidently and eloquently in public. A big well done to the winning team: Proposer - Lucy, Chairperson: Mark and Opposer: Alex.

We presented the Youth Speaks trophy, which was given to Casterbridge Rotary Club when the Dorchester Club closed and shows the competition's long history in Dorchester.

The winning team automatically goes through to the next level of the competition in March, as very sadly, other schools who have entered teams in the past have struggled with time pressures this academic year.

'What We Do' Main Pages: