Youth Speaks Final - 2013

As part of our commitment to supporting and working with young people, Youth Speaks has become an integral part of the work we do with local schools.  The ability to communicate clearly and persuasively is a valuable life skill for us all. 

We collaborate with the Durham Union Society (DUS) in offering a programme of public speaking and debating training to schools in the Durham city area.  The programme culminates in a competition, and we have worked with students in Year Groups 10 and 11 to coach and support them.

This year, students from Durham School, Durham Johnston School, Belmont Community School and St. Leonard's School worked with a team of DUS members led by Jessica Redmond, learning the art and rules of formal debate.  In the final competition, the student teams were presented with a topic for debate and were given 20 minutes to prepare to speak for or against the "motion".  In the semi-final, Durham Johnston and Durham School debated the motion "This House believes that musicians convicted for violent crimes should be banned from producing further music" while St Leonards and Belmont debated the motion "This House would require TV Channels to broadcast equal coverage of sports involving female athletes and sports involving male athletes".

The judges, Ellie Naismith and Jack Williams from the DUS and Lt. Gen. Robin Brims, faced quite a challenge to select the best two teams from the entertaining and informative debates.  But St. Leonard's and Durham School were selected to go through to the final debate - "This House believes that oppressed minority groups should use only peaceful methods of protest".  While the two teams were preparing their arguments, we enjoyed a hilarious mock debate by DUS members - and Rtn. David Jackson - on the motion "This House believes that the exploitation of bunnies during the Easter period is morally indefensible".

After the final debate, the judges declared the St. Leonard's team the winners and a member of the Durham School team to be the best speaker.  It was a thoroughly entertaining evening.

The Durham School team - Lauren Marsh, Kristian Hall and Alistair Reith - with President Arthur

The Durham Johnston team - Sam Stewart, Challner Zon and Helena Carver.

The Belmont team - Max Robinson-Lundy, Christopher Dooley and Jennifer Smith.

The St. Leonards's team - Georgina Cocker, Kaite Mullaney and Alex Neill.

Jessica Redmond from the DUS

Robin Brims presents a certificate to Lauren Marsh of Durham School -
judged to be the best speaker.
 

And the winners were - St. Leonards - Congratulations!