During the Summer Term, our Year 9 English pupils have been practising their persuasive speech writing and delivery skills, which culminated in a ‘Declamations Final’ last week.

A declamation is a formal speech of up to 10 minutes which includes rhetorical language, demonstrative gestures and forceful emphasis to get a speaker's point across. Over the last few weeks, pupils have been delivering their declamations in their English classes, and two from each class were selected as finalists to deliver their declamation to the whole year group.

Topics ranged from ‘Why we should be allowed to have mullets’ to ‘The impacts of climate change’ to ‘Why should you take part in sport?’. The declamations were judged by Head of Key Stage 4, Stephanie Poynter and Drama Teacher, Rhiannon Bland.

There were two commendations; one for Lottie who talked about ‘The effect of harmful comments’ and Alex who discussed, ‘Why guns should be banned in America’. A special mention went to Maddie who drew on her personal experiences to explain, ‘Why you should never judge a book by its cover’.

The overall winner was Erika Bevis who delivered a well researched and engaging speech about ‘Being your authentic self’.

Ben Payne, English teacher organised the event and explains, “After a three-year hiatus we were keen to bring back this competition. It encourages pupils to think about topics which are important to them and to use language as a means of expressing their views in a way that persuades others to agree with them.”

Elly Hayward, Head of English added, “The competition also enables pupils to develop and practice their presentation skills which are absolutely key, and it’s been wonderful to see them grow in confidence. This year’s winners were chosen due to the persuasive techniques they employed, the thoroughness of their research and their engaging delivery.”

We look forward to seeing the competition run again next year! For more #PangCollYear9 stories click here.