On Friday 27th and Saturday 28th January 2023 we ran the junior and senior heats for our annual Public Speaking Competition. The themes were based on Scotland’s Year of Stories. The juniors had a choice between “a story should be told mind to mind, eye to eye, heart to heart” and “nobody is is a villain in their own story. We’re all heroes in our own stories”. The seniors had a choice between “nothing spoils a good story like the arrival of an eyewitness” and “the single story creates stereotypes, and the problem with stereotypes is not that they aren’t true, but that they are incomplete. They make one story become the only story”.
The speech quality was extremely high; with many participants giving their first ever public speeches. Speakers were also given questions on their speeches and answered these (often very challenging!) questions brilliantly. All participants should be extremely proud of themselves.
The speakers progressing to the finals day are:
Junior
Shahadha Althaff Irfan
Sandy Anderson
Maya Marshall
Bing Meddowes
Jabin Ravikrishnan
Megan Stewart
Tanish Thapar
Senior
Ruby Giddy
Zayd Kahn
Xavier Kelso-MacLeod
Tara Sinfield-Hain
Emily Taylor
Kathryn Taylor
Athena Tsikouda
Sonia Zhang
The finals are set to take place on Saturday 4th March 2023 at the Scottish Parliament.