Youth Speaks - Chelmsford heats at Hylands School

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:

• “Feminism.” The speaker argued that, although it has made great progress, the feminist movement is still needed today not only in developing countries but also in this one.
• “Are children’s communication skills being damaged by social media?” This drew attention to the large amount of time the average child spends on social media and suggested some alternative strategies to encourage them to communicate orally.
• “The evolution of women’s rights.”, in which the speaker reviewed the progress in women’s rights in this country from the 19th century onwards, including property and voting rights and the rights to study at university and enter certain professions.

The Senior teams’ topics were:

• “Should conscription be reintroduced in the UK?” The speaker outlined the benefits of conscription to both the country and young people but also presented counter-arguments and left hearers to make up their own minds.
• “Why so blue?” The audience may have expected the speaker to ask them why they felt so blue. Instead she reviewed the association of certain colours with certain moods and wondered why that should be.

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.]