Year 10 2016 Public Speaking
On Wednesday 22nd June 2016, five boys and five girls from Year 10 competed for the Jonathan Logue Public Speaking Cup. Each year, the standard is extremely high; however, this year it was exceptionally so, presenting the judges – two previous, and much missed, members of the English Department, Mrs Marion Hadden and Ms Hilary Timmons – with great difficulty in awarding the top three places.
A local Year 8 Public Speaking Competition, run by Ballymoney Borough Council, took place on National No Smoking Day, Wednesday 12th March this year.
Dalriada fielded a commanding team of five boys who all performed excellently: Jack Kennedy, James Wilkinson, Bradley Findlay, Oran Hampton and Ben Wright. Each boy had crafted his own speech and so each speech had its own particular style and tone, which was very pleasing.
Competing against a strong representation from an all-girls’ team from Ballymoney High School, our Dalriads were pleased to carry off two of the top prizes, with Bradley Findlay securing third place and a cheque for £15 and James Wilkinson winning second place and £35. Goody-bags were also presented by the organiser, Cara Henry, herself an Old Dalriad, and the boys came back to school very pleased with their performances.
In November the first round of the 31st Annual Youth Award Public Speaking Competition was held in the Tweed Room at the Robinson Hospital. Six girls from Dalriada took part. Laura Abernethy received first prize and Susannah Peden came third. All competitors were presented with certificates.
The final round of the competition took place on Saturday 23rd February in The Great Hall at Magee. The standard overall was extremely high and we were delighted when Laura achieved second place with her speech: ‘To frack or not to frack: That is the question.’ She was presented with The Betty Hudson Memorial Cup and a gift provided by Mr Gerald Hudson. Book tokens to the value of £75 were presented to the school. Congratulations to Laura and a big thank-you to all the speakers who took part.
