The fifth and final heat of the Churchill Public Speaking Competition organized under the auspices of the Colchester & Essex branch was held at King Edward VI Grammar School, Chelmsford, on 22 January 2019. Eight teams competed in the event, representing five schools in the area.
The adjudicators, ESU headquarters’ Branch Education Officer, Alex Bailey, former High Sheriff of Essex, Julia Abel Simth, and public speaking coach, Ciara Browne, complimented all the participants on their high standards before announcing the prize-winners, who each received a Churchill crown from organizer, James Scruby.
The award for best chair was given to the engaging and responsive Caitlin Glover of The Sandon School Team 1, that for best questioner given to eloquent Jonathan Wellers of the host school’s Team 1 and the prize for best speaker to Taha Chowdhury of the hosts’ Team 2, who showed plenty of light and shade in his speech about human cloning. Lily Ambrose of The Boswells School, who spoke without using notes on the addictiveness of the internet, was nominated as the outstanding personality.
It then fell to Alex Bailey as chair of the judges to announce the team winners as King Edward Vi Grammar School Team 2 with New Hall Team 2 as runners-up. Faraz Gul and Shaarukkan Kankeyan were chair and questioner for the former and Oliver Pilling, Zac Pette-Azeem and William Bidwell were chair, speaker and questioner respectively for the latter. Every participant received a certificate for having taken part, presented by branch chair, Brian Cooke. Chelmsford County High School for Girls also made an impressive contribution to the competition alongside the other schools previously mentioned.
Grateful thanks are due to King Edward VI Grammar School for their kind and generous hosting of the event, attended by around forty people including parents and teachers and compered by James Scruby and local branch volunteer, toastmaster, Karen Bellerby. Pictured are members of New Hall School, Chelmsford
