Local boy wins best Public Speaking award for the third consecutive year

The Rotary Club of Ascot held their 23^rd annual heat of Rotary Youth Speaks at St George’s School in Ascot on Tuesday 6^th November. Rotary Youth Speaks is an annual five-stage competition that culminates in an all British Isles final that will take place in 2008.

Over 50 children in teams from Charters, Marist Senior, St George’s and St Mary’s competed in teams of three. Each team comprised a chairperson, main speaker and a vote of thanks. The teams could choose their own subject and were required to address their chosen subject within strict time limits for each stage.

Rotary Youth Speaks is run as two age groupings – the intermediate competition is from ages 11-14, and the senior group from 14 to 17 years. Because of the number of team entries this year the competitions were run simultaneously using the chapel and theatre at St George’s School.

Speaking at the award ceremony, Ian Valentine, president of Ascot Rotary praised the skill and professionalism of all the competitions. He said “Everybody taking part here tonight is a winner; it takes courage to stand up in front of an audience to perform as you all have tonight.”

Subjects chosen by the intermediate section ranged from “has technology gone too far” to the winning teams analysis of the perils of the nanny state. St George’s School B team of Isobel Johnson, Jennifer Blackburn and Lydia Tufnell took the team prize for an intriguing discussion on Ridiculous Risks.

The prize for the best intermediate speaker again went to Jack Ling from Charters. Jack has achieved the amazing feat of scooping this prize for every year he has been eligible to compete and exemplifies the benefits derived from participating in this kind of event.

Eight teams competed in the senior section and the winners were the Marist Senior School A team. Their subject “An Englishman in Albania” won the unanimous support of all the judges. The team comprised Laura Fox, Wallace Martin Kerr and Charlotte Luxon. Wallace also won the award for best senior speaker.

The teams from St George’s and Marist will now progress to the Zone round of the competition that will take place at Uxbridge.

Mention should also be made of Rotarian Michael Leaman. Mike has nurtured this competition within Ascot for the last ten years and developed the heat to its current high standard. This is his last year and he leaves a vibrant and highly successful legacy in Ascot Rotary Youth Speaks.