Rotary Youth Speaks Competition

After winning the semi-final at Loughborough, the Youth Speaks competitiors from St Martins Academy, Stoke Golding, Molly Carey, Izzy Fielding and Tamera Deacon-Stubbs have again made their mark on the Rotary International Youth Speaks competition. At the Intermediate Final in Oakham on 11th March, facing their strongest challenge so far, the team delivered another highly accomplished and witty presentation on the  problems of teenage depression, once more unaided by notes or prompts, and dealt comfortably with questions put to them by the audience. They took two individual awards as they strode into the Regional Final, in Elland. In the audience was Bosworth Rotarian Chris Hayes who told us “ It was a passionate performance on their subject of teenage depression. All of the girls displayed a maturity and style way beyond their years and I am sure that they will do extremely well in the finals in Yorkshire.

The Rotary Youth Speaks Competition is a well-established and successful competition organised and promoted by Rotary International in Great Britain and Ireland. 

The competition aims to offer young people:

• experience in speaking on a public platform as a member of a team
• an incentive to formulate ideas on topical subject
• discipline in dealing with a topic in a limited time
• the opportunity of learning and practising high standards of expression, presentation and appearance
• impartial feedback and assessment of performance by experienced adjudicators.

Thousands of youngsters take part every year in the competitions which takes the form of local heats with the winners going on to regional heats followed by a national final.

This is the first year that the Rotary Club of Market Bosworth has promoted the competition within its area and we were very pleased to have St Matin's Academy in Stoke Golding respond and keen to enter two teams.

The first round took place on Wed 14th December at St Martin's Academy and each team comprised three students from years 7-9. In this instance it was a battle of the sexes.

The winning team, Molly, Izzie and Tamara, spoke on the problems of teenage depression. They just beat the team of Toby, Adam and Harry who questioned whether celebrities should be judged on their personal lives. Both gave engaging and convincing presentations and ably answered Audience questions.

If you wish to find out more about this competition you will find full details here.