Six teams from five schools – Kings Langley School, St Albans School, Haberdashers’ Girls’ School, Immanuel College, and Chancellor’s School – took part in the Hertfordshire Branch Final of the ESU-Churchill Public Speaking Competition on Thursday, 27 January 2022. Whilst Haberdashers’ School had been delighted to host the competition face to face, at the last minute the competition had to be conducted over ZOOM instead as some of the participants had tested COVID positive.
The ZOOM competition was very well attended by student supporters of the participating schools, teachers and parents.
The Rt Hon Mayor of Hertsmere sent us a wonderful message of support, ‘I commend the ESU Public Speaking Competition for encouraging students to develop their oracy skills which will hold them in good stead in their future lives’.
The Judging Panel comprised Nigel Rogers, Jan Gillen and Alex Chan, with Ann Beatty in the role of ZOOM Master and Ameeta Sabharwal in the role as MC and Timekeeper.
The standard of the competition was immensely high, with speeches covering topics as far ranging as: ‘Margaret Thatcher does not deserve vilification’; ‘An undergraduate degree is an expensive waste of time’; ‘In today’s world, the young are wiser than the old’; ‘The exploitation of the Antarctic represents this generation’s greed coming at the expense of the next’; ‘Life is really simple but we insist on making it complicated (Confucius)’.
Judges had an incredibly hard task choosing just two teams to go through to the upcoming Eastern Regional Final.
Our congratulations go to the following teams: Haberdashers’ Girls School and Immanuel College for winning the competition.
