Youth Speaks District Final 2015

Friday 27^th February.  I am invited to the District Final of one of Rotary’s many national competitions for Young People, namely Youth Speaks, which is a public speaking competition for schools. Our club, Shepperton Aurora always organises the first round of this event for schools in Spelthorne. If a team is successful, they go on to Round 2, and if once again they prevail, then they are in the District Final. That is why the DG and I were battling through the rush hour traffic this evening to get to Heathside School in Weybridge, who were hosting this year’s District Final.

A number of members of Shepperton Aurora were also in attendance tonight because a Spelthorne school had made it this far in the competition, and the club wanted to support them. I of course would have been expected to attend regardless of what teams had made it to the final, in view of my position. Nevertheless, it was pleasing that Halliford School’s senior team had made it this far, as they had been very impressive when I saw them in the first round. Altogether six schools were competing tonight, 3 Intermediate teams and 3 Senior teams. Officials this evening would be 3 independent adjudicators, a timekeeper to ensure that speakers kept to their allotted time, and a questioner, whose job was to put a question to each speaker about the subject they had just spoken on.

                                  Winning Upper Halliford team after the first round, with individual senior winners

On arrival, we met the lovely Betty McClure, District 1140 Youth Services Chair, who was responsible for organising this event. Herself a former District Governor, Betty is a great Rotarian, who works very hard every year in organising the various Youth activities undertaken by our District. Helping her set things up tonight was John Brewer, who was also doing the important job of timekeeper. The DG took up a position near the stage, as she was to hand certificates to all participants, and Neil Carter, an old friend of mine from BNI, sat with her to help organise the certificates. Betty had overlooked a special seat on stage for me, but on this occasion I was happy to mingle with the public, and I took my seat amongst the audience.

                              Aurora members Sylvia Courtney, Lyn Derrington and Pauline Hedges wait for things to start

There was a bit of a delay, as the adjudicators hadn’t arrived by the scheduled start time of 6.30. As the clock edged towards 6.40 I could see that Betty was getting a bit edgy, because they still hadn’t arrived.  I started preparing myself for the prospect of being called upon to judge the competition. As arguably the most senior person in the room, I was determined not to accept unless I could be chairman of the adjudicators. Anything less would not be fitting for the Consort to the District Governor. Looking around the room, I was starting to think about the two other adjudicators I should select to join me, when a cheer went up as the judges arrived. Actually only two of them arrived as one had been taken ill. This situation was resolved by the questioner joining the judging panel, and Andrea Cameron from Hounslow Rotary Club was co-opted to be questioner. I was momentarily annoyed at not having been asked to be questioner, but then I remembered  what a difficult job it can be, so I was happy to let someone else have a go.

                                       The adjudicators - June McCullough, Amanda Zwarts and Doug New

As I waited for the competition to get under way I chatted to a man sitting next to me who turned out to be the father of one of the contestants in the Intermediate section. He said his daughter was inclined to be a bit theatrical when speaking in public and he hoped she toned this down when she spoke tonight. I wondered if he was being a bit over-critical as after all, each school has come through two rounds of competition to get here tonight, so they had clearly shown themselves already to be excellent public speakers. When I spoke to him later, he was very pleased with her presentation

                                                  theatrical speaking

First up were Woking High School Intermediate team. I thought the chairman showed great composure when, after her team had been called up on stage, she took time out to pour her team a glass of water before starting. Their chosen subject was Watching Society Waste Away, and was a plea for less food waste in the world. In answering the questioner, the speaker gave an excellent reply, I thought, telling us that her family often eat food that has passed its sell-by date, and she didn’t see any harm in cutting mould off cheese before eating the rest of it. I could hardly believe my ears – a teenager advocating scraping mould from food before eating it! To be fair I would do that myself, not that cheese very often lasts long enough in my fridge to become mouldy. But would I have done it as a 14 year-old? I don’t think so. 

                                                             Don't waste food 

Next up were Claremont Fan Court School speaking about inequality in sport. One killer statistic stood out: A male footballer playing in the team which wins the English Premier league will earn £24 million or thereabouts. A woman footballer winning the equivalent female competition will earn……nothing. Following them we had the Old Palace of John Whitgift School in Croydon speaking about whether technology is making us lazy. I loved the quote ‘Technology is taking over the dog’s role as Man’s Best Friend.’ The point was illustrated in the Vote of Thanks, where we heard that ‘if your friend is having a birthday, you don’t need to ask her what she wants, you just open up her Amazon wish list.’ The argument was well made that technology is not only making us lazy but uncommunicative as well.

                                                                               Unpaid? Women footballers

The Senior section began with the Halliford School team of Eugene Smith (Chairman), Ben D’Alton (Speaker) and Jacob Kelly (Vote of Thanks) talking on the subject of What makes us British? They were confident, articulate and humorous from the start, and Ben concluded that it was our humour which set us apart from other nations, giving many amusing examples from Monty Python, Mr Bean and others. Following them were Gunnersbury CatholicSchool, whose subject was Music and the Mind. This was a more cerebral presentation about the science and emotion of music and its effect on our brains. I thought their speaker gave the best answer I heard tonight to our questioner. Finally Woking High School senior team gave our second presentation this evening about Inequality in Sport, which had the intriguing title ‘You Throw like a Girl’. Their speaker made the telling point that only 30% of girls participate in sport outside of school, and they need more role models to persuade them that sport can be cool.

                                                                                   British humour? Mr Bean

Without wishing to sound patronising, they really were all excellent.  I did think that Halliford had edged the senior competition, but I may be guilty of bias. Fortunately I played no part in adjudicating. The adjudicators sat on stage to deliberate on who the winning teams were. Unlike the first round, only two awards would be made tonight, best Intermediate Team and best Senior Team. The winners would go forward to the Regional Final in Maidstone in April. Whilst the adjudicators deliberated, the rest of us partook of the tea (or coffee) and biscuits on offer. It’s interesting that when our club organises the first round, we put on a substantial spread of refreshments afterwards, as well as awarding additional trophies for best Speaker, best Chair, best Vote of Thanks. The reason for this is that individual Rotary clubs can choose to allocate a reasonable budget towards the costs of one evening, whereas the District has to make its limited funds stretch across all Youth competitions. Consequently the District Finals are typically run on a shoestring.

                                                 The DG presents certificates to one of the Intermediate teams

Whilst waiting for the judges verdict, I chatted to a man called Maurice, whose wife  was one of the adjudicators. Apparently the adjudicators all belong to an organisation called Toastmasters. This is a group that organises clubs up and down the country, giving members an opportunity to practice public speaking in a safe environment. I told him that I went along to a Toastmasters meeting once in Camberley and thought it was terrific. I was only an observer, so didn’t speak, but I was impressed with the supportive atmosphere, where every speaker was encouraged and received positive feedback from their fellow members. The meeting started with everybody being given (without any prior preparation) an object which they had to describe in a certain way. On that evening, people were given everyday office equipment (staplers, sellotape, paperclips etc) and had to describe the object they were given in an incredulous voice. Later people were able to speak on a subject of their choosing. Because of the support given from their colleagues, nobody was frightened to speak. I thought it was great, and I decided then that if a Toastmasters club opens locally to where I live, I would join it. That hasn’t happened yet.

                                                         The DG with Betty McClure and John Brewer

Eventually we all took our seats again to hear the adjudicators verdict. They started by giving some excellent general advice to speakers about such things as the use of notes and voice projection. Then came the announcements we were all waiting for. The Intermediate section had been won by Old Palace of John Whitgift School and the Senior section by…… Halliford School. A big cheer went up from my Aurora Rotary colleagues, but I thought it best if I didn’t show any enthusiasm as the Consort should be neutral in these things. So there is a chance I may be attending the next round in Maidstone to support Halliford School.

                                              The winning Halliford team - Eugene, Ben and Jacob with trophy.....

After photos of winning teams had been taken, I had a chance of speaking to one of the adjudicators, Doug New. We have known each other for a number of years, having been together in the Weybridge Chapter of BNI a while back. I had a similar conversation with him about Toastmasters as I had had earlier with Maurice. He said that if a new Toastmasters group were to start up in Staines would I help get it off the ground? In a weak moment I said yes.

                                                           .... and with teachers and parents

The DG and I, with John Brewer, were the last to leave, and we were the embodiment of the Rotary motto of Service Above Self, by staying to clear litter from the floor, and generally try to leave the school hall as we had found it. The caretaker was a very obliging man, but of course we want to be welcome at the school next year.