Recently we were lucky enough to compete in the local final of the Legacy Junior Public Speaking Award, a national competition for 12 to 14 year olds. This was a great opportunity for us to gain experience, develop our skills and gain confidence in speaking to large audiences.

We had to deliver two speeches. The first was a five minute prepared speech. Kieran challenged the media stereotypes of the Australian forces and Alexander discussed the importance of taking in perspective to prevent us from making quick judgments. The second part of the competition was an impromptu speech in which we had five minutes to prepare a two minute speech on the topic of “Off limits.” Kieran talked about things that should be off limits online and Alexander discussed how many things we consider off limits were practiced in history under terrible dictatorships.

As well as developing our public speaking skills it was also a great opportunity to meet with a lot of boys and girls from many other schools.

Overall, we felt like that we both had a really good experience and we encourage other boys to take part in these sorts of competitions in the future. We would both like to thank Mr Del Villar for helping us prepare and practice our speeches.

Kieran Corcoran (7/FL) and Alexander Humphreys (8/JN)