News

Public Speaking Champions

9th March 2010


Once those Park School speakers start speaking it is very hard to stop them.   They were in good voice again on Thursday, taking on some of the very best young speakers in the south-west, in the District Finals of the Youth Speaks Competitions.   The competitors had been winnowed from the 1500 or so young men and women from across Dorset, Somerset and Wiltshire who had originally entered.
  
Our Intermediate team took to the stage in Frome Market whose splendid halls regularly show off some of the most well-bred creatures in the south-west.   Jessica Whittick chaired our team, Ellen Bazley was Speaker and Laura Coppard proposed the Vote of Thanks.   They were up against six other teams from as far away as the fringes of Exmoor and of the Cotswolds.   There were hundreds of spectators packed into the hall, and it soon became obvious from their reaction that only two teams were really in contention for the top honours: they were so evenly matched that the result could go either way.   The Park was one of those teams but on this occasion we had to be satisfied with being declared the Runners Up.   We subsequently discovered that the winning team had previously come third in the National Finals and their Speaker had actually won the National competition.   Pipped to the post by the best in the land:  not bad for a small school in Somerset!

Meanwhile up in Bath another Coppard was in action.   Adam was chairing the Senior team with Aaron Newbury as Speaker and Thomas Sankey proposing the Vote of Thanks.   They were competing with seven other teams and here too there was a very close contest, but on this occasion it was for who would come second and who would come third.   By general consent there was only one possible winner, a team in a class of its own, and we were very proud when Aaron Newbury was declared the Best Speaker and our team the Best Team in the three counties.   It is a brilliant achievement, boys – Well done!    They'll be taking on the rest of the West in a week or two in the Regional Finals, but that's not all:  tomorrow (Saturday 6th March) they're in action again, in the District Final of the ESU Public Speaking Competition, in Exeter.