What courage, commitment, and charisma! Visualise the best TED Talk you’ve seen then add more.

The Junior Speech Competition was held on Wednesday morning. Our winners were revealed at Junior Assembly today.

The topics were many and varied. We had, for example, everything from ‘Chess – Is it a sport?’, ‘Life is like rugby’, ‘Listening to music makes you happier’ to ‘The effects of social media’, ‘Communism vs. Capitalism’, ‘The importance of learning critical thinking’ and ‘The case for more Te Reo in schools’ - to mention but a few.

The boys’ stage presence, audience engagement, information quality, and entertainment factor, were all top shelf.

Well done lads.

Thank you to Mrs Tenci and the other English staff for preparing the boys so well and for pulling it all together, and to Bev Anderson for co-judging (and keeping me on track).

Mr Nick McIvor, Rector

The following students participated in the Junior Speech Competition:

Year 9

• Jackson Phillips (9Ea)

• Jakob Brits   (9Dv)

• Logan Gray (9Ea)

• Noah Crannitch (9Ea)

• Eli Griffiths (9Ly)

• Evan Holborow (9Dv)

• Tāwhiri Fowler (9Ea)

• Mossey Tuigamala (9Ly)

• Zakari Evangelou (9Ea)

• Joseph Mathews (9Dv)

• Conor Kerr (9Ea)

  Year 10

• Aaron Hill (10Bd)

• Nathan Maree (10Te)

• Mana Aumata (10Bd)

• Ryan Nafatali (10Gi)

• Gregor Watts (10Te)

• Alexander Bork (10Bd)

• Alex Bailey (10St)

• Ben T Nguyen (10Te)

• Junior Talatonu (10Hn)

• Jack Wilson (10Te)

• Cooper Maclean (10Bd)

• Iwikau Te Aika (10Gi)

• Levi Simpson (10Te)

"With a full programme for both competitions, and the time and consideration needed in relation to very tight fields, judgement is not in at time of publishing. The standard, however, was impressive at both levels, with in some cases speeches clearly drawing inspiration from class discussion – even challenging the state of the nation,  while in others independent choice and development was commendable, empathetically connecting with audience while speaking about what mattered to the speakers. The competence of delivery was awe-inspiring; holding great potential for Senior Speaking potential."

Mrs Bernadette Tenci, HOD English