Junior Schools Youth Speaks Competition 2019

Rotary Junior Youth Speaks Competition 2019

In front of an audience of 100 at the Memorial Hall, the three members from each school were asked to speak for two minutes on a subject of their choice. The growing realisation worldwide of the effects humans are having on our planet clearly influenced many teams’ choices: Lyneham, Lydiard Millicent, St Bartholomew’s and St Mary’s schools all spoke about the impact of pollution, global warming and plastics in our oceans; Noremarsh School highlighted the impact of poaching on keystone species of animals; while Longleaze School talked about the impact of screen use on children, posing the question, is there a danger that social media can actually be anti-social media?

Shirley Ludford from Swindon 105.5 Radio introduced the teams and a panel of judges comprising Philip Porter (a public speaking trainer), Mike Farrow (Mayor of RWB) and Philip Tanner (President of the Rotary Club) scored each speaker on their use of vocabulary, creativeness, clarity and teamwork. The standard of all the presentations was exceptionally high and the teams had clearly prepared well and researched their subjects. The judges were impressed by the eloquence and the confident delivery of all the speakers and it was a very close run competition. After much deliberation, head judge Philip Porter announced Lydiard Millicent Primary School as the 2019 winners and the Rotary trophy together with £20 book tokens were presented to the winning team of Hannah Larby, Maddi Bird and Jessica Cull.

Youth Speaks is one of the competitions organised annually by Rotary Clubs across the country aimed at promoting the development of leadership skills in young people. Public speaking isn't easy and requires some bravery to stand up at a microphone on a stage in front of so many people, but those that are brave enough and can express their ideas clearly are our leaders of the future. We were privileged to see quite a few of our future leaders in action on Monday!

The next inter-schools competition organised by the Rotary club will be the Junior Schools Quiz on the 4th April. The club is also running a Junior Technology tournament on 21st March for all Year 5 pupils at Lyneham Primary school, with a view to introducing it as another inter-schools competition in 2020.

Click here for a pdf version of this report.

.

Wiltshire Life Education Classroom update

As an extra for the evening, Rotarian Dave Gardner gave a brief talk about his role as a Trustee of LEC Wilts, about the organisation that sits behind the delivery of the Life Education classroom, its teachers and “Harold the Giraffe” to schools in Wiltshire. 

Fuller details of what he spoke about and the work done by Rotary in delivering this valuable service to Wiltshire primary schools can be found by clicking here.