Young Voice of Trowbridge

On Monday 4th February a new Trowbridge in Bloom initiative, The Young Voice of Trowbridge 2013, took place at the Clarendon Spectrum Theatre.  For the first time the three secondary schools of Trowbridge, The Clarendon Academy, The John of Gaunt School and St Augustine's Catholic College came together to take part in a public speaking competition.

Students who participate in public speaking competitions develop their knowledge of topical issues as it encourages them to think about community, local & national issues and offers them the opportunity to present their views, while enhancing their speech writing skills, their speaking and presentation skills and their ability to think analytically on their feet. The competition also helps the students  to develop confidence.

Each school put forward 5 teams of 3 students, two from Year 8, two from Year 10 and one from Year 12/13:

The Year 8 students subject title was "What effect will the new cinema complex have on the local community and environment?"

The Year 10's discussed "What opportunities are there for school/college leavers in Trowbridge?"

The Year 12/13 teams topic was "How can the local youth influence Trowbridge's future development?"

The presentations were lively and thought provoking as each team had clearly done their research, had come to their own conclusions and presented their views with well thought out arguments. Indeed one of the judges, Wiltshire Council Leader Jane Scott OBE, has written down notes of the students comments to take back to the council!

It must have been daunting for the students to stand in front of a large audience and present their views and there was an obvious look of relief on some of the students faces when they had completed their presentation, but they should all be justifiably proud of what they have achieved. Each student received a certificate for taking part, a team from St Augustine's Catholic College took the year 8 trophy, with John of Gaunt scooping both the year 10 and year 12/13 trophies. The Year 10 team from John of Gaunt received the highest number of marks from the judges but when all the individual team scores for each school were combined, the overall winner trophy was awarded to St Augustine's Catholic College.

The Rotary Club of Trowbridge Wessex Mead was delighted to be part of the organising committee for this innovative event and to sponsor the Year 10 winner trophies. We offer our admiration and congratulations to all the students who took part.