Youth Speaks 2026

Budding young speakers displayed their talents to an impressed audience and judging panel in the first round of the Rotary Youth Speaks Competition. The event was hosted by The Rotary Club of Taunton. Club President, Adrian Prior-Sankey, presented awards to the successful competitors.

After an entertaining day of presentations, Kings College emerged victorious in the Senior category, (14–18), after delivering their presentation on, ‘This House Believes That Greatness can only Be Achieved Through Extreme External Pressure’,

In the Intermediate category, (11-13), the winning team from Robert Blake School in Bridgwater claimed their prize after presenting their debate on, ‘Are Tomatoes a Fruit or a Vegetable?‘

There was also an award for the Best Speaker in each category:

The Intermediate section was won by Daisy from Blake School and the Senior section winner was Diatigui from Taunton School.

The competition aims to provide young people the chance to work as members of a team, gaining experience of researching and speaking on a public platform about a topic or issue that they care about.  This also gives them the opportunity of learning and practicing high standards of expression, presentation and appearance.

The schools competing included Court Fields School Wellington, King’s College, Taunton, Robert Blake School, Bridgwater, and Taunton School.

The Rotary Club of Taunton would like to thank Wellington School for providing an excellent venue for their Competition and in particular the efforts of John Caulfield for all the help, preparation and organization he provided.

After winning the Intermediate Competition the Chairperson of the Robert Blake School team said: “The Youth Speaks was an incredible experience, meeting new people and representing our school.  My teammates all agree that the time we had put in was greatly paid off and we thank everyone for that wonderful moment”