Stratford and Alcester students blow judges away in Youth Speaks competition

THE Royal family, transgender sport and scrapping the 11+ examination were among the subjects debated by school students at a public speaking competition.

Children from Alcester Academy, Alcester Grammar, King Edward VI, St Benedict’s and Stratford schools were competing in the annual event organised by the Rotary clubs of Alcester & Bidford and Stratford.

In all there were 11 teams taking part in the Youth Speaks competition at the Greig Hall in Alcester last week, with students ranging in age from 11 to 17.

Winning in the intermediate competition were Dev Mangipudi, Otis Green and Aarush Dayanand from KES, debating whether the 11+ should be abolished.

The best individual performance in the intermediate section went to Florence Seckham, from Alcester Grammar School, who proposed the motion that schools should encourage competitiveness.

In the senior competition, it was a clean sweep for Alcester Academy with Faith Griffiths, Eshal Rehman and Molly Thompson-Taylor arguing that Britain is dependant on the Royal family and Harriet Covill judged best individual for her performance in her team’s debate that transgender people should be allowed to compete in their chosen gender sport.

The winning teams will represent the area in the district finals.

Head judge and performance coach Sharon Bott said: “Each year we are blown away by these young people. They each deserve an award simply for volunteering and their courage in taking part. Their hard work shines through and it is always an enlightening evening for all the judges.”

She added that this year’s competition was one of the closest yet.