Year 7 Public Speaking

by Harriet Turner-Brown and Alex McCurry

I felt so excited to listen to our class’ public speeches in the Lyceum that day, and to present my own. I wondered if I should go first, but decided not too – I can’t exactly say why but I couldn’t quite face that thought. I ended up somewhere in the middle, which was fine by me. 

I gained confidence over the next fifteen minutes as the speeches progressed. I heard about climate change, You Tube, feminism, and a range of interesting topics, presented by speakers who were passionate, nervous, quiet, loud or anywhere in between. I was listening with one ear while calming my nerves before my own performance.

Suddenly it was time. I stood up, hearing friendly applause from my enthusiastic classmates. I took a deep breath, internally running my lines; telling myself to look up; marking my ‘emphasis’ words; and planning to project my voice.

My first words came out (luckily)! I felt excited and relieved to finally be putting my speech, which had been in my head for weeks, into the world.

It was going by in a rush when suddenly the warning bell rang. I panicked, and raced to the end, managing to finish in decent time.

Hearing the last few speeches was way more relaxing, now that mine was done.

Overall, I was impressed with the standard of speeches, and satisfied with my own. The only thing left was our Social World teacher’s response. Though desperate to hear it, we waited what felt like ages. When it came, she was super encouraging – and some students from each class were then nominated to perform their speeches for the whole of Year 7.  

I was excited and proud to present to the whole of Year 7, and am happy for my friends who moved further on to represent MGC in the Richmond Schools Ainger Peck Public Speaking competition run by Rotary Richmond. The students who progressed through were Alex McCurry, Charlotte Gilbo, Genevieve Kessey, India Buckley-Jackman, Nandini Vyas and Lily Major.

Now over to you, Alex!          

On the 3rd of May I participated in the Ainger Peck Public Speaking Competition. It was such a fantastic experience especially for me because watching the older year levels was a massive inspiration. Two students from Richmond High came and competed in the 7-9 year level competition and they were AMAZING, PHENOMENAL and it was a pleasure to have them compete at our school.

Everyone did a fantastic job, especially the Year 7s from MGC, Nandini memorized her speech, Charlotte presented a beautifully written persuasive argument, Lily did a fantastic job at projecting her voice, Genevieve had the best statistics and India came up with a sensational topic. The senior competition was beyond anything I’ve ever seen before and they all deserved first place.