Senior Oral Tapestries
The oral tapestries competition with Darfield High School’s senior students continued last night. The event was MC’d by our school’s cultural leader Alicya Cook. What a privilege the audience had last night. We experienced polished, passionate and dynamic speeches. The judges, Melissa Jebson and Nikki Ferguson-Brown said it was a real privilege to hear many students ‘speaking from the heart’ and delivering speeches on topics ‘that really mattered to them’. The judges commented that seeing a tradition of high-quality oratory skills developing through the school is wonderful. For many students, I hope that they will consider entering other nationwide competitions and even careers that could utilise their oratory skills.
An enormous congratulations to the following students for their participation and placings in the oral tapestries final:
Year 10
First Place - Imogen Smith - ‘My comparison of ski fields.’
Second Place - Emily van Ashe - ‘Why abortion should be legalised.’
Third Place - Brinn Sissons - ‘Why great people are great.’
Forth Place - Jordan White - ‘Why the Solar system is so awesome.’
Year 11
First Place -Trae Davis - ‘Why we need to value Te Reo Māori.’
Year 12
First Place - Kyan Simons - ‘Crime in New Zealand’
Second Place -Tasman Hawke - ‘Sexualisation of females in the media.’
Third Place - Maurine Basu - ‘Food waste.’
Year 13
First Place - Mackenzie Morgan - ‘My final challenge to DHS.’
Second Place - Arran Armstrong - ‘Competitive Mindset’
At the conclusion of the evening, the overall winner of the Oral Tapestries for 2023 was announced. The winner receives the Jebson Family Trophy for Best Public Speaker at the end of year Prizegiving—a massive congratulations to this year's winner Mackenzie Morgan. The judges were wowed by how she captivated the audience with her speech using crafted and controlled oral language techniques.
Well done to all the students at Darfield High School from Year 7 to 13 that put in hours of effort to compete in this event.
Mrs Rudman
LAL English