De La Salle Holy Cross Junior College were the winners of the Northcliff Rotary Public Speaking Competition after they were invited with various other schools to be part of the dialogue exchange.
Head girl of De La Salle, Sinead Mahony, and Adam Gear, both in Grade 7, competed in the competition on 28 September.
This year the competition invited Northcliff Primary School, Greenside Primary School, Bryandale Primary School, Constantia Primary School, Franklin D Roosevelt School, Sacred Heart College, St Teresa’s along with De La Salle Holy Cross College.
“The club has been hosting this annual event for the last 35 years and has become a highlight in the primary school calendar,” said club president, Andrew Buttress.
The schools took part in a prepared speech section and an impromptu section.
The theme for this year’s prepared speech category was The foundation of happiness consists of giving and sharing with others, which was aligned to Rotary’s theme for this year being Rotary Serving Humanity.
Mahony won the prepared section with Jenna Epstein of St Teresa’s School as runner-up. The impromptu section was won by Northcliff Primary pupil, Tanacity Douglas with Glenn McKenzie of Bryandale as the runner-up.
Chief judge, Brian Appleton from the National Eisteddfod Academy was impressed with the standard and quality of the speeches presented by the participants. “Many of these youngsters who excel in public speaking emerge as leaders within our communities during their adult years,” said Appleton.
Dean Govender of Northcliff Rotary, and convener of the competition, presented the winners and runners-up with beautifully illustrated dictionaries as well as vouchers for Exclusive Books.
The overall winner of the evening was De La Salle Holy Cross College, who will once again host the competition next year.
Mahony congratulated the Rotary for yet another successful event and said that the evening was fun. “Well done to all of the speakers who participated in the event.”
