The teams from Chigwell School and Beal High School with their trophies and Rotary London District Governor Eve Conway-Ghazi

Redbridge students excel in public speaking competition Youth Speaks

Lizzie Dearden, Reporter Sunday, March 3, 2013
8:30 AM

Pupils have sounded out deep and challenging topics including self-belief, failure and their own existence in a national competition.

The Youth Speaks contest, run by Barkingside Rotary Club, pits teams of school pupils against each other in a bid to present a thought-provoking topic to their adult audience.

The team from Beal High School, Woodford Bridge Road, Redbridge, won the award for Immediate and Best Overall Team at the event held at the City of London Boys’ School, on Saturday.

Chairman Rianna Hindocha, speaker Simran Seera and proposer of the vote of thanks Joel Johnson, may have spoken about the fear of failure and lack of self-confidence, but they showed signs of neither with their virtuoso performance.

Simran also won the award for Best Speaker, Rianna the award for Best Chairperson and Joel the award for Best Vote of Thanks.

The Chigwell School team was not far behind, scooping the award for Senior Teams.

They tackled the question, “Do I exist?” to advance to the regional finals for the second year in a row.

Both schools have already come through the area final at Trinity Catholic High School, in Woodford Green, and will advance to the regional final in Ipswich on March 16.

Margaret Cooper, of Barkingside Rotary Club, said she was overjoyed the two teams had got through.