My favourite part about being a part of the QEGS community is not only having the opportunity to compete in a wide variety of competitions catering to all different skill sets but being encouraged by my friends and gaining confidence to collaborate with people to strengthen relationships. After becoming the national finalist of the English Speaking Union’s (ESU) Performing Shakespeare competition in 2022 I was ready to take the next step up in order to gain a less dramatic tone of speech in exchange for the ESU’s Public Speaking Competition. This prestigious competition has been running for 64 years and is the oldest and largest public speaking competition in England and Wales involving more than 300 schools. Performing Shakespeare allowed me to gain large amounts of confidence and develop enunciation which were all transferable to this competition. With this background, I was able to take a lead with the groups participating – which I thoroughly enjoyed – giving me a chance to develop my leadership skills and lead passionate people towards a common goal. 

This competition consisted of a speaker, a chair and a questioner; the chair (host) and questioner joined with another group with 15 minutes prep time to develop spontaneous and improvisational skills. Due to the pre-prepared nature of the speaker and the expression and performance aspects I was able to implement, this felt like a seamless transition from my theatre participation (such as my upcoming role as Nathan in the school production of Guys and Dolls) therefore I put myself forward for this role. As a group, we decided on the topic ‘Schools are not doing enough to address addiction amongst their students’. In this I discussed the prevalent topics of phone addiction and vaping as our main two topic points mentioning buzzwords like Fear Of Missing Out (FOMO). Together we crafted this speech, in our group of 5, enabling us to gain a holistic view on the topic through the different opinions and potential questions that may be asked by the questioner or the audience. I enjoyed seeing how we all contributed to make an impactful speech and deliver a speech on a very current topic for our generation. Personally, I really enjoyed coming to a conclusion on such a complex topic and presenting it in front of an audience; overall, I found this entire process to be so rewarding. It felt great to challenge myself and be part of a team that was so dedicated. Although, at first it felt daunting once I started speaking, the speech felt very coherent and I was able to naturally rely on my confidence and prior knowledge.

For the first round we rotated in between breakout rooms in zoom (2020 style) to talk with our groups and present our final outcomes. This experience has truly been one of my favourite parts of school so far, and I’m looking forward to continuing to build my skills in public speaking. With the success in this round (being part of the top three groups) we are able to move forward to the regional heats in January.

Thank you to the English Speaking Union for allowing me to find the power in my voice and thank you to Mrs Affleck and Dr Boardman for continuing to promote and organise our sessions for this competition allowing me to pursue this competition with my peers despite the logistical challenges!

Ayan – Savile