Many of us in society lack confidence but, first of all, what is confidence? According to google this is defined as the feeling or belief that one can have faith in or rely on someone or something. However, it can be argued that what is considered as being confident differs from person to person, making it socially constructed. This idea of being confident is relied on for many things in life but whereas confidence comes easy to some, for the majority it is something that is hard to obtain and apply. There are many ways to gain confidence however such as wearing perfume, exercising and even making eye contact but many people are oblivious to these methods. Thus, in order to boost confidence amongst students, The Sydney Russell School held a workshop run by the Jack Petchey foundation.
The Jack Petchey speak out challenge is a programme run by the Speaker's Trust and funded by the Jack Petchey foundation. This year over 18,000 students in over 500 state secondary schools in London alone are taking part because I think we can all agree that having adequate speaking and listening skills is a must in the workplace. This programme includes a competition element with the chance for speakers to represent their school and region at a school assembly, in a regional final and at the Grand Final. This will encourage young people to believe in themselves, to stand up, to speak out and to make a difference to our world thanks to Sir Jack Petchey.
From my experience, I enjoyed my time in the workshop tremendously considering the fact that I am not very confident to say the least. When the session started, we were quite timid but our supervisor, Ms Ore soon got us feeling very comfortable and relaxed in an otherwise tense environment. We all participated in a range of activities to eventually aid us in performing a one minute speech at the end of our session. Although we felt quite nervous, the very professional staff made us feel much more at ease. Having all had successfully completed our task we saw how actually, standing up and speaking in front of an audience is not impossible if you assess the situation you are put in and take it easy. Perhaps we overthink the idea of public speaking because if we plan appropriately, engage with the audience, pay attention to body language, think positively and drown out the nerves we can no doubt conquer our fears and gain confidence along the way but it is important to also remember the saying that we have all heard, 'practise makes perfect' but I believe that we all have the capacity to be more confident. Thank you Jack Petchey for this life changing opportunity.
By Umeh Jamiath, The Sydney Russell School
