Congratulations to one of Concord’s public speaking teams who won of the first round of the Rotary Youth Speaks competition, an annual national public speaking competition for young people.

Concord was delighted to host the Rotary Youth Speaks competition for the Church Stretton Rotary Club here again this year on Sunday 7^th February. The teams representing Concord this time had a lot to live up to as Concord teams had won the trophy for two years in a row in 2008 and 2009. In an entertaining afternoon where topics as diverse as Post Modernism, euthanasia and General Douglas Haig were discussed, the audience were certainly given plenty to think about.

Unfortunately the late withdrawal of the teams from other local schools meant that it was only the five senior teams from Concord who were competing this year. It was good to see a junior team of Form 3 students entering (Vanessa Wong, Sasha Lim and Philip Hawkins) and tackling the topic of Douglas Haig’s tarnished reputation as the butcher of World War 1, as the only entrants in the intermediate section of the competition.  They will go through to the District round of the competition.

Speaking in front of the assembled audience on the topic of ‘National Service’, Michelle Yip, Yvette Ang and Farah Rohaizat impressed everyone with their team performance to open the senior part of the competition. Other highlights of the competition were Jasper Koid speaking without notes on the topic of ‘Voluntary Euthanasia’; Esther Choi’s impassioned speech on ‘Abortion’; and an impressive team effort from Bowie Cheung, Hilda Kwong and Bill Shen on the topic of ‘Climate Change’ which was delivered with both passion and confidence.

The judges were very impressed by the high standard of the senior teams and after much deliberation chose Bowie, Hilda and Bill as the winners. They will now go through to the District Competition to be held later this month in Market Drayton.

Said Phil Woods, Head of English, “Once again, the depth of talent at Concord really amazed me. Students spoke with such confidence and maturity on a wide range of fascinating topics. The involvement of teams of varying ages and nationalities was also the embodiment of everything Concord stands for and I can honestly say that any of them would have been worthy winners.”

We wish the team going into the District Final every success. A huge thank you goes to Mr Woods, for his hard work in preparing the teams and to the Rotary Club of Church Stretton and their President Roger Stokes, for giving these talented young people a chance to shine!