Our Youths Speak!
Posted by Iain Ramsay
on Dec 01, 2014
Grays Thurrock Rotary Hosts another successful opening round of The Youth Speaks debating competition
The finals of the 2014 ‘Youth Speaks’ competition were held at the Thurrock Council Chambers last Thursday. Teams from the Grays Convent and the William Edwards schools went head to head to decide who would represent Thurrock at the Rotary District finals which will be held in Chelmsford early next year.
Each team of three gives a presentation on a topic of their choice. The chairperson of the team has two minutes to give an introduction to the team and topic. Then the second member of the team has 6 minutes to present the main facts on the topic and finally the third member who rounds off the presentation.
The topics included ‘The living wage’, ‘Scotland’s Independence’, ‘Beauty Versus Intelligence’ and ‘the True Meaning of Christmas’. The competition is divided into two age ranges the intermediate 11- 13 year olds and seniors 14 to 17 year olds.
This year the winners of both age sections came from the William Edwards School although the judges did state the marking was extremely close.
intermediate section winners
Charlie Blackmore, Svevla Bartolini and Thomas Banks
senior section winners
Jess England, Rachel Walsh and Nathan Davis
At the end of the evening Rotary President Iain Ramsay commented on the very high standards and thought provoking topics. He also thanked the staff from the schools for supporting this event particularly Grace Coles of William Edwards School and Ruth Nyland of Grays Convent School. Also there lending her support was Mrs Penny Johnson Head Teacher of Grays Convent School.