Congratulations to Charlie and Maddie who came 1st and 2nd in the Stanley Bay School Speech Finals.

Charlie B's winning speech:

Hey, I've got a question for all of you out there, does anyone actually like homework? No nor do I. Did you know 99 percent of people that do their homework, believe it or not, their brain explodes!!! There are 1 million different reasons why homework is extremely utterly useless and boring but these are just three that I've just chosen to share with you today. Number one, if you do your homework then you will get a lot less sleep, so you can't focus more in school. Number 2, you probably don't realise but doing your homework puts you under a lot of stress. Number 3, you already have to go to school 30 hours a week so why do you have to do more work!!! That's so unfair don't you think? By the end of this speech, I guarantee that you will never do homework again, or at least do homework my way!!!

Imagine coming home from a rough day of school and your parents aren't home, all you want to do is sit down and watch TV for a couple of hours. Finally, your parents come home and roar at you, have you done your homework!!! Then you have to stay up another hour just to do your homework and by the end of all that you will be exhausted. Then the next day you're exhausted so you can't focus more in school, but if you didn't have to do your homework then you would have got a lot more sleep and a lot less stress.

Have you ever been so stressed but you never know why? I sure have!!! There are so many reasons that it may have been caused, but one of the main reasons is homework. Believe it or not, I haven't done homework in years, you want to know my secret?!! I do it in school, so after school, I can hang out with all my friends. I guarantee if you do it this way it will relieve you of a lot of stress!!!

Do you value your downtime? I sure do!!! You already have to go to school 30 hours a week but if you didn't do homework, think of all the things you could do, you could play sports to make you fit, you could learn helpful cooking skills, you could learn an instrument and so many more things. But once again homework cancels it out, once again my way of doing homework or (schoolwork), allows you to do all those things.

After everything I've said I am sure you're at least considering not doing homework or at least doing it my way. If we all don't do at least half of our homework maybe just maybe we can reduce the homework level and become the social and active person you are supposed to be.

Maddie J's Speech:

Have you ever had the feeling that your school is actually a prison and you are being kept here without realising it? today I’m going to convince you school is a prison and I will tell you 3 reasons why I know this. Don’t believe me? Well you might after my speech.

My points are - first, the rules in schools and prisons are the same, second, teachers are like prison guards and finally the look of schools and prisons are very similar.

Rules, rules, rules!! At school there are SO many rules I could go on forever. The biggest rule is - you cannot leave school whenever you want to. And you can’t choose whatever you want to do. As well as this you have to ask permission to go to the bathroom, You also can’t even choose who to work with. You are forced to wear a uniform usually. There are rules to make sure you are quiet and both prison and school have rules on detention and punishment if you do the wrong thing. So with all these rules you can see that school is a prison for kids.

Did you know that teachers are making you do their work for them? We are like little minions working for Gru. The teachers are tricking us to do their work for them just like prisoners are made to do work for the prison guards. Have you noticed that both teachers and prison guards have keys to either their classrooms or prison cells and they both order people around and tell them what to do! School children and prisoners have to be silent and listen when they are talking. As well as this, both teachers and prison guards force people to walk in lines and they even get to decide when we can move around just by ringing a bell.

Now finally, have you ever seen a picture of a prison with wire fences, long corridors and small playing fields? Are you thinking what I’m thinking? School, there are just so many things in common! For example, fences and locked gates are found around both schools and prisons. Both are designed to have long corridors and narrow windows that don’t let much light in. The outside area of a prison is usually just a courtyard with a bit of grass, that can look very similar to school courtyards. It’s hard to tell the difference!

I have now told you my three reasons why schools are actually prisons. I hope this has convinced you that schools are pretty much just a place to lock up kids and keep them safe while their parents are at work. By tomorrow all of you should be at home instead of at this prison being suffocated by too much work and being bossed around. The good news is, if you are Year 6 this year then you are already nearly HALF WAY through your 13 year prison, oops I mean school.