Naracoorte High off to a strong start in Rostrum Competition!
On Wednesday, 8th May, we had four students from our school travel to Grant High School in Mount Gambier to participate in the South East Heats of the 2024 Rostrum Voice of Youth Public Speaking Competition.
The schools in the South East appreciate the ongoing support and sponsorship of the Mount Gambier and District Community Bank (Bendigo Bank) for the South East Heat, as without this support the students from the South East would need to travel to Adelaide for the Heats.
The competition sees the students present a prepared speech (from a choice of five topics) of six minutes for juniors and eight minutes for seniors and a short notice speech, where students are given 15 minutes to prepare a three minute speech (from a choice of three topics).
There were two junior heats. In Heat 1, Year 9 students Cooper Rees and Imogen Martyn faced off against each other and students from other schools. In their prepared speeches, Cooper chose the topic “Age is no barrier” and Imogen chose “The end of an era”. In their short notice speeches, both Cooper and Imogen selected “The value of pets”. In Heat 2, Year 7 student
Willa Pearce presented her prepared speech on “Positive vibes” and selected “My ideal school” for her short notice speech.
In the one senior heat, Year 12 student Freya Wirper chose the topic “How much enough?” for her prepared speech and “Awkward conversations” for her short notice speech.
We were so excited on the night when Imogen and Freya won their respective heats, advancing them to the semi-finals of the competition. The next day, we also received the news that Cooper was through to the semi-finals on the competition’s ‘wildcard’ system, which ensures that there is equal representation of speakers from different zones/regions.
I would like to say a huge thank you to Trina Sincock who assisted me with supporting/transporting the students. Another thank you goes to the parents/family members who came to support the students on the night.
I also acknowledge the courage, the passion and the hard work of the four students who took up the opportunity to compete, in what is the 50th year of this wonderful competition.
The semi-final will be held in Adelaide at Immanuel College on Saturday, 25th May. We wish the students the best of luck at this next stage in the competition!
Bel Beggs
Rostrum Coordinator