Youth Speaks
Since November last year, pupils in Year 8 (12 to 13yrs) have taken part in the "Rotary Youth Speaks" competition. They were required to read a piece of Poetry to an audience of other pupils and judges. They were allowed to select the poem from a list giv
Since November last year, pupils in Year 8 (12 to 13yrs) have taken part in the "Rotary Youth Speaks" competition. They were required to read a piece of Poetry to an audience of other pupils and judges. They were allowed to select the poem from a list given to them, or to select one of their own.
In December, a judging panel comprising of Nigel Pattinson,Head Teacher; Marcus Castle Head of year 8, and Rtn Syd Monk, selected the best 12 students to progress to the next stage of the Competition. All of the students who had taken part in the initial stages received Certificates at a presentation in January.
Of the 12 remaining students,10 took part in the final competition, this required each of them to recite a poem of their choice and then to tell the audience,and judges, in no more than 2 minutes, "How I would change the World." This was a formidable task, completed in front a selection of Year 7 students and the same judging panel, augmented By Rtn Jim Eilbeck.At the end of each presentation the audience and judges were allowed to ask questions, putting the student under considerable pressure. All of them coped admirably and the judges had the difficult task of grading each performance.
The final outcome was that 4 Students were "commended", 3 were highly commended and 3 were awarded prizes.
In 3rd place was Megan KENDAL who recited "Night Mail" by W.H.Auden. and then went on to tell us that she would change the World by stopping wars through dialogue, she explained how wars affected families and rendered people homeless.
In 2nd Place, Henry JENNINGS, recited "The Listener" by Walter de la Mare. He also advocated and end to War and told us how it could be achieved.
In 1st Place, the winner of this year's Competition was Estelle BELLAS who chose the very funny poem"Daddy fell into the Pond" by Alfred Noyes. Estelle then told her audience that, essentially, the World was OK and that it was people who needed to change.She said that we should concentrate on feeding those affected by famine, securing good water supplies in countries affected by drought, and ensuring that everyone had equal rights.
On Thursday 1st March, all of the students received their Certificates at School Assembly and in addition, the 3 winners received I-tunes gift cards to the value of
