Fourth Year of Youth Speaks Success for The Sixth Form College, Birkenhead

15 January 2014

The Sixth Form College defended its local championship title for a fourth consecutive year taking first place out of the Senior Teams at this year’s annual Youth Speaks Competition.

The Wirral stage of the prestigious Youth Speaks competition took place at The Sixth Form College on Monday 13^th January 2014. The public speaking event, organised by Norman Jones –President of The Rotary Club of Birkenhead , had a record number of Wirral based schools taking part this year with a total of 18 teams from 8 different schools competing.

The winning team from The Sixth Form College consisted of the Main Speaker, Tom McNally; Chairperson, Dean Avis; and the Proposer of the Vote of Thanks, Wendy Garnett. Tom, who studies Government & Politics, Economics, History and Religious Studies at The Sixth Form College, delivered a confident and thought-provoking speech on the topic titled: Press regulation-The Road to Tyranny?

Both Tom and Dean, who also studies Government & Politics alongside Law and Sociology, were members of winning teams in last year’s event. Dean was the Chairperson in The Sixth Form College’s team which won the local round and came third in the district. Tom went on to the regional round last year and won the prize for the best Proposer for the Vote of Thanks in the region. Wendy, who studies Drama & Theatre Studies, English Language and Literature, Textiles and Applied Science, made her debut appearance to the Youth Speaks competition this year.

Neston High School was awarded first place in the Intermediate round. Wirral Grammar School for Girls was awarded second position in both the Senior and Intermediate rounds.

Jane Cavanagh, Head of History at The Sixth Form College, supported the students in their preparation for the event said “I am delighted that the BSFC team has won for the fourth time in a row! I am so proud of all three of our speakers; Tom McNally is an exceptionally talented public speaker. He was able to deliver a speech for 6 minutes without looking at a note and his delivery was so polished and utterly captivating. The team have worked hard on researching the topic, writing the speeches and learning them; hours and hours of hard work had gone into this performance. Dean Avis performed his duty as Chairperson with confidence, charm and charisma. Wendy Garnett, our Proposer of the Vote of Thanks was equally captivating and was able to improvise when commenting on how well Tom had answered Dr Freeman’s question from the floor. We narrowly missed getting through to the Regional Round last year, coming third in the District, so we are very excited to have another chance to progress further in the competition.”

Principal, Kathryn Podmore, commented “All of the students that took part in the competition delivered outstanding speeches. It was an honour for The Sixth Form College to host such a worthwhile event which allows young people to gain confidence skills and enables them to deliver their views on subjects they are passionate about. I am very proud of our students and would like to congratulate all who took part, as everyone did a fantastic job.”

The next round of the competition will be held, Friday 7^th March at Glyndwr University, Wrexham.