On Tuesday 21st November our senior public speaking teams (Lower V and Upper V) competed in the ESU public speaking competition and at the end of the evening we were given the amazing news that both of our teams were progressing to the next round! Everyone was ecstatic at the news and we couldn’t have been prouder of our achievement.

Everyone had to utilise their quick-thinking skills in all three challenging roles – the first time we had done this at competition
level. Teresa took on the role of speaker, giving a speech on ‘Science is a threat to mankind’ in which she argued that taken to extremes, science could potentially undo millions of years of evolution and cause humans to lose their fundamental thinking abilities.

For four minutes, Teresa handled a variety of questions brilliantly, completely unfazed by what was thrown at her. Amy and Grace hosted a speaker from Bradfield College who argued that ‘The NHS should support obesity’. Amy took the role of chair introducing the speaker and summarising and Grace was a quizzical questioner, probing the speaker and delving deeper into the topic.
The UV team’s speaker, Zara, presented a speech on a topic the judges said was the most difficult of the evening – ‘There is no such thing as a guilty pleasure’ – and admirably responded to some tricky questions from Bradfield College.

Kashvi and Shefali worked with the speaker from Sir William Borlase’s Grammar School and both were praised for their performances, especially Kashvi’s warmth and use of detail as chair and Shefali’s skill which was presented as a model of how to question effectively by one of the judges.

Despite having a minor technical hitch at the start, we settled down and ploughed through. Although it was hard work, our preparation and practices helped us to perform well and we all thoroughly enjoyed the experience.

Ms Quant and Grace, Amy, Teresa Lower V