Barnet Year 10's ... "Speak Out"

This academic year, 18,000 Year 10 teenagers (14 – 15 years of age) from virtually every state school in London and Essex have been receiving a day’s training in the skills of public speaking . The training is delivered by Speakers Trust through a project sponsored by the Jack Petchey Foundation.

A key objective of the training and competition is to create the opportunity for pupils to “Speak Out” Their speeches may have a political, moral, philosophical, humorous or personal dimension.

On Thursday 5th February 2015 the most effective speakers from participating schools  in Barnet met to compete for the title of Regional Champion. The evening was hosted by St Mary’s C of E School in Hendon NW4. The topics were varied and the speech length relatively brief so the evening had a real momentum and variety to it.

As much as I had really looked forward to this event , nothing could quite have prepared me for the breathtakingly refreshing, outstanding and jaw dropping performances by the regional finalists that awaited me. There were 17 finalists in total, all of whom made way above average contributions. Such was the calibre of each speech that I found it difficult not to give each contestant a score of over 75 (out of a possible 90) points and I am sure that each of my fellow 6 judges found themselves in a similar position.

Alas out of those 17 truly remarkable speeches, there could only be one winner and 2 runner ups. The trophy for first place went to Amir Razak from The Compton School who made a brilliant and impassioned speech entitled “Innovation needs qualification”. The trophy for second place went to Yehoushua Francis from East Barnet Academy for his authentic and witty contribution about “being a hero”. The third place trophy went to the supremely confident Indigo Smith (pictured above) from Jewish Community Secondary School (JCOSS) for her powerful and thought provoking discourse about "Beyonce and Feminism"

In addition to the trophies for the top three speakers, all 17 finalists received a framed certificate presented by Councillor Hugh Rayner, The Mayor of the London Borough of Barnet.

The evening was truly inspirational and each of the presentations struck a chord with me. Apart from the winners, other noteable speakers  for me were Josh Weller from Hasmonean High School and Salar Jafarifar from Christ's College Finchley both of whom made powerful and emotional speeches entitled "British Values" and "Real Muslims" respectively. Kiana Athisegaran-Smith  from Ashmole Academy spoke about "Fear" and concluded that faced with fear we all have 2 choices either Forget Everything And Run or Face Everything And Rise. Mathury Sooriyakumararan from Copthall School used her speech to send out a compelling message about the perils of smoking. I was also very touched by Kye Adamson from Hendon School who spoke about the difficult sexual issues facing young adolescents. Hiba Siddiqui from The Henrietta Barnett School used her speech entilted "The Gift"  to express  gratitude  for a younger sibling who just a few years prior was an inpatient at The Great Ormond Street Hospital for children but is now thriving, she concluded her speech with the quote "Yesterday is history, Tomorrow is a mystery, Today is a Gift, Thats why it's called the Present!"

For me it was a magical  and highly motivating  evening and I am grateful to this group of Year 10's who have through their amazing and courageous speeches reminded me that it is within each of us to dig deep in order to become the very best that we can be!

Thank You, Barnet Year 10's ... You did an awesome job! 

The Grand Final for the "Speak Out" challenge will be held in central London in July 2015. At the Grand Final 15 of the best Regional Champions will deliver their winning speeches to an audience of over 900 people. For more information please go to www.speakoutchallenge.com