Pictures: Youth Speaks in Barnstaple

School teams from across North Devon gathered at The Park Hotel in Barnstaple on Saturday, February 11 to compete in this year’s Rotary Youth Speaks public speaking competition.

In three age groupings covering the full range from primary schools through to the lower and upper secondary school years, teams had devoted their free time with teachers to prepare for the day.

The judges were given the challenge of picking two teams in each to represent North Devon in the South West of England Rotary District Final later in the month, then aiming at the Regional Final in March followed by the National Final in April.

Southmead Primary School in Braunton and West Croft Primary School in Bideford won through for the juniors with entries of ‘The unspoken language’ and ‘We must save the rainforest’.

Chulmleigh College and The Park Community School, Barnstaple, were picked for the intermediate category, with their talks on ‘Working from home should be the new normal’ and ‘Arts subjects should be prioritised over physical education and exercise at secondary school’.

The two senior winners were Bideford College with ‘Earning more than the living wage is necessary for a happy life’ and Chulmleigh College with ‘Teenage girls are not taken seriously’.

Competition organiser, Rotarian and former headteacher David Atton said Youth Speaks aims to offer young people experience of speaking on a public platform as a member of a team.

Mr Atton said: “It offers an incentive to formulate ideas on topical subjects in a limited time with the opportunity of learning and practising high standards of expression, presentation and appearance, followed by impartial feedback and assessment of performance by experienced adjudicators.

“We hope that all of the teams enjoyed the day and it enables each student to strengthen essential qualities and skills to help them in preparing for their futures, wherever they may lead.

“The standards achieved by North Devon’s young people were very high and we wish them all good luck for the next round.”