Jack Petchey - Speak out Challenge

The morning of Monday 27th November saw the “assembly final” of Jack Petchey’s Speak out challenge. This public speaking competition gives Year 10 students the opportunity to write a speech on a topic of their choice that has a positive message. Students are trained by an expert trainer from the Speakers trust over the course of a whole day’s workshop and use their new skills to construct an impassioned three minute speech.

The whole of Year 10 had the opportunity to participate in the event with their form groups in full day workshops hosted by an expert trainer from the Speaker’s Trust. The school is incredibly proud of each and every single Year 10 student who participated in the workshops, especially since they had to speak in front of their peers at the end of it! Anyone who has engaged in public speaking knows just how challenging that can be!

The main focus of the workshops was to provide students with the skills to improve their public speaking ability, a skill which the school knows can benefit everyone no matter what their future career might be. However, completing the training also makes students eligible to compete in the Jack Petchey Speak out challenge against other schools across the borough. The first step in that process was to compete against other speakers from our school to pick the three best speakers to progress to the regional finals.

In the assembly, 7 speakers stood in front of a full assembly of all 140 Year 10 students and their form tutors to give their speeches in front of a panel of judges composed of teaching and non-teaching school staff. Each and every one of the speakers did a tremendous job standing up in a situation which brings feelings of nervousness to even the calmest individual. The school is very proud of them for their courage and for the work they have put into developing their speaking skills and their speeches, each of which were on a subject that they decided to speak about.

Of our 7 speakers taking part in our assembly final, the school was allowed to select three winners and a runner-up. The three winners earnt their chance to compete at the Islington regional final against students from schools across the borough. Many congratulations to our winners, Kiara, Star and Tanya and our runner-up Alex for their excellent speeches.

On Tuesday 5th December we hosted the Regional Final at our school.   The evening was packed with original and insightful ideas from many young speakers. Congratulations to all speakers who were truly superb.  We are pleased to announce that Kiara was runner-up and Star came third place.

Please click on this link to view the photo’s from the event:  https://jpspeakoutchallenge.com/album-display/?gal=jpspeakoutislingtonregionalfinal202324&galpage=0