Public English-Speaking Awards

On Thursday 30 May, the annual PESA event commenced. PESA is the Public English-Speaking Award competition in which students from various schools can showcase their public speaking skills.

This year the event was held at Nossal, and all Years 9 and 10 debating students were given the honour of forming the audience for the presentations.

PESA participants must deliver a pre-prepared 5–6-minute speech on a topic of their choosing. They are then given 20 minutes to prepare a 2–3-minute response to an impromptu topic. This year’s impromptu topic was ‘Follow your dreams’. Out of 7 speakers from the represented schools, 2 were chosen to proceed to the state competition.

Participants came from schools across Victoria, including from Huntingtower School, Mac. Robertson Girls’, and our very own Nossal High School.

Nossal was represented by Maha Kashif, who delivered an eye-opening speech into the urgent need to fix the deteriorating state of the Australian healthcare system, as well as an eloquent response to the impromptu topic. She presented beautifully and Nossal was very lucky to have a representative in Maha.

It was an honour to be able to attend the event. All debating students were able to gain an incomparable experience that will surely help them to become proficient public speakers and make them more aware of the issues and problems society faces today.

Finally, a massive thank you to Ms. Faulkner and other staff for organising the event and a shoutout to all the student volunteers for ensuring the event ran smoothly.

By Tashi Mallawa 0S3