The annual Jack Petchey Speakout Challenge was held in November. 25 Year 10 students were trained in public speaking all morning and then each delivered a short speech on a topic of their choice in the afternoon in competition with one another. Uniform was a popular topic as were tuition fees for university - very much in the news at the moment.
And the winners were ......Sochima Ikpa and Philip Mpoza. The judges could not choose between the two so they were declared joint winners.
Sochima urged her fellow students to be good parents, illustrating her talk with an example of bad parenting and the long-term impact it would have. Philip spoke fluently about poverty, particularly in Africa and the difference between the lives of children on that continent and in the UK. He urged us to give our money to children in need. Very appropriate as he was speaking on Children in Need Day.Thanks to Ms Bicarregui for organising the workshop.