ESU Public Speaking

And the winner is…………………………….. Archbishop Beck Catholic College!

The spring term is always a busy one for the Senior Public Speaking Society. On Friday 26th January three of our Public Speakers represented the College at the Merseyside and Liverpool Branch, English Speaking Union (ESU) final, held in the very prestigious surroundings of the Athenaeum Club, Liverpool.

Matthew took on the difficult role of Chairperson, Amy was our demanding Questioner, and Katy was our outstanding, eloquent, and confident speaker. All three students were praised for their very competent, skilled and mature team performance. Matthew was awarded the Best Chairperson Award, with wonderful praise from the judges about Katy and Amy’s outstanding performance. The team won the Merseyside Branch final and will now represent Merseyside in the Regional final at the Grange School, Cheshire. They are only one step away from the National Final in Cambridge.

In December our society travelled to the House of Lords to take part in a debate, this has been recorded elsewhere on the college website. All participants were delighted this week to receive their “certificates of participation” and full transcript of the Debate in the House of Lords from Lord Fowler, the Lord Speaker of the House of Lords.

Speaking after the event on Friday, Mr Hicks co-ordinator of Public Speaking at the college said, “our society has been an inspirational team who have all worked so hard to achieve something truly outstanding, special and memorable. I have been really impressed with how they have all help each other, truly a team effort.”

Praise, from the Sixth Form, (himself a former ESU winner), was there to support the team on Friday evening. Praise ably supported and mentored Matthew, our winning chairperson. Speaking after the results were announced to a packed Athenaeum Club, he said, “one of the things I have learnt about our ESU team is that there is no such letter as “I” in the word team.”