Thursday, 3 November marked the annual Junior Speech Cup where we found five year 9 competitors - Tim Kirke, Imogen Young, Lexi Gutierez, Xavier Gabrielle and Sophia Dragaleva; and four year 10 competitors - Maevi Fleming, Matthew Armstrong, Alexander Honiss Gallardo and Victor Woodhouse, flexing their oratory skills in the hopes of winning the top prize. 

With topics ranging from the war in Ukraine, to saving the environment to promoting female priests, the contestants wowed the judges, Rose Struthers and Alice Redhead. 

The year 9's started the competition. The year 9 runner up, Tim Kirke, presented a convincing speech on the importance of education. The winner of the year 9 Junior Speech Cup and the all-around best speaker of the afternoon, Lexi Gutierez, gave a passionate and commanding speech on the inequality present in the priesthood, charging the audience to help make a change and to accept women in the priesthood. 

The year 10's also had a close race with speeches about everything from fast fashion to environmentally friendly power sources. The runner up, Maevi Fleming, appealed to our better natures, encouraging a more proactive approach to saving the environment. In slight opposition, the winner of the year 10 Junior Speech cup, Matthew Armstrong, beat his last year's rival with an animated and somewhat ironic speech on the positives of nuclear power.

 All in all another amazing year in which the caliber of speeches continues to rise.