Outstanding Success for Liverpool Students

The English Speaking Union (ESU’) Public Speaking Competition for schools has been running for over 50 years and this year saw over 300 schools enter from across England and Wales. Reaching the National Finals is no mean feat, with the majority of teams having won a local heat, local final and regional final to earn their place in the top 8.

From London Region – The Robert Clack School
From the North East Region – Bourne Grammar School
From the South West Region – Blundell’s School
From the Midlands Region – Kenilworth School
From Wales – Treorchy Comprehensive School
From the North West Region – Archbishop Beck Catholic College, Liverpool
From the East Region – Haberdashers’ Aske’s Boys School
From the South East Region – Winchester College

This year’s judging panel, chaired by Baroness Maggie Jones, the Shadow Minister for Education in the House of Lords, commended the finalists on the high quality of this year’s competition. There are a number of awards presented each year, and the winners in individual categories were:

Best Questioner – Lewis – Archbishop Beck Catholic College, Liverpool
Best Chairperson – Marcus – Haberdashers’ Aske’s Boys’ School
Best Speaker – Anna-Rose, Treorchy Comprehensive School
Outstanding Personality (judged by ballot from the audience) – Oscar – Blundell’s School

Baroness Jones then announced that the team who were runners-up were Archbishop Beck Catholic College, and that the winners of this year’s competition were Blundell’s School.

Speaking after the event, Headteacher Paul Dickinson said, “We are immensely proud of our students as they did themselves, the school, the local ESU branch and the city proud. They worked really hard at a difficult time considering that two members of the team are about to take major GCSEs examinations!”

The Archbishop Beck Team comprised of Ellis, Michael and Lewis.