Public Speaking
Wantirna College students have worked extremely hard and have competed in four public speaking competitions this semester. This year we saw six strong competitors battle it out in the Debater’s Association, Legacy and Rostrum public speaking competitions. The competitors this year were: Tameka Lewis (7E), Jordan Brooke (7E), Alexandra Evans (7S), Jackson Mattern (8C), Elsie Zvara (8D) and Chloe Paddock (9A).
The competitions are open to junior and senior secondary students across Victoria. Public speaking is a great way to practice standing up in front of a crowd and voicing your opinion on a range of different topics. And our competitors this year did not disappoint. The students put together strong, sophisticated speeches that received extremely high scores in all competitions. Our top result was Alexandra Evans (7S) who came runner up in the Legacy competition.
A big thank you to Alex Shepherd for organising and leading our public speaking team. We highly value her expertise and guidance.
Next year we hope to have students compete from year 7 to 12, across a range of different topics and bring home gold for Wantirna College.
L to R: Jackson, Tameka and Alexandra at the Legacy competition.
Top tips for public speaking
A lot of people are afraid of speaking publicly, so we have put together our top tips recommended for those of you who detest presenting speeches:
- Know your topic: you should be knowledgeable on your topic so that you can talk about it confidently. Include a mix of emotional appeals and sound research to persuade your audience to your point of view.
- Maintain eye contact: It’s so important to engage your audience. If you’re reading off a piece of paper you may get “lost” behind it. Stand proudly and speak to the whole audience.
- Vary your intonation: make sure you’re speech is not monotonous by switching it up. Get louder in some parts or softer to keep the audience guessing as to what will happen next!
L to R: Elsie, Jackson, Tameka and Jordan at the Rostrum competition.