This month, students across the country have been competing in the Jack Petchey Speak Out Challenge. An annual competition, the speak out challenge aims to give young people crucial business and professional skills that may be omitted from the school curriculum, as well as selecting the UK’s best young speakers.
The year 10 students of Debden Park High School were this week given an entire school day to practice and learn these skills, with the expert guidance of two mentors from the Jack Petchey Foundation. Among the skills taught was the ability to structure a speech effectively, as well as the components of an engaging story. Another central message of the day was how universally applicable the techniques would prove to be in the students' future careers, within almost any path they may choose to follow.
The culmination of the day’s teachings was a 2 minute speech delivered by each of the students to the rest of the group, with the top six, chosen by a panel of English teachers, going through to the school final later this week. Aside from the competition, it was incredible to see the progress made by every student from the timid introductions given at the start of the day. One student, for whom English is a second language, was presented with an even greater challenge yet rose to it spectacularly and earned themselves a special commendation from the panel.
This scheme is just one of the many endeavours organised by the Jack Petchey Foundation with the aim of supporting the community surrounding young people, another of which are the Jack Petchey awards, regularly presented to those deemed to have given an outstanding contribution to the community. An outstanding contribution certainly describes the efforts of the mentors who spent the day passing on their knowledge to the students, for which everyone involved was incredibly thankful.
Max Bolton – Debden Park High School
