Primary school public speakers vie for top prize
There was an invasion of 22 school children at NSW Parliament in August, with the rabble espousing all sorts of radical ideas – like kids should be able to vote. Enter the annual Bear Pit Public Speaking Competition, where the best orators from North Shore primary schools wowed the assembled crowd of parents and grandparents.
Organised by North Shore MP Felicity Wilson, the competition was the culmination of weeks of rounds, which started at a class level, and ended up with the 22 finalists.
North Shore Living Editor in Chief Michelle Giglio was tasked as one of three judges to determine who should be declared winners. Ms Wilson encouraged the students to ‘step out of their comfort zone and use your voices, as your voices are the most important thing in the world’.
And use their voices they did. The judges were blown away by the standard of all the participants, who mostly spoke without notes. Winner of the Year 5/6 section was Fredrika Hall of Queenwood, with her powerful discussion of why kids should be able to vote. Fredrika gave a dramatic account of a dystopian future where kids rule the world – resulting in The Great Sugar Depression. The judges awarded her first place for an engaging, clever speech and energetic connection with the audience. Shore’s Harry Klineberg placed second for his speech on how an act of kindness can change the world.
Winner of the Year 3/4 section was Ben Walton, of Shore, for his beautiful account of what he couldn’t live without – his siblings. Ben had a relaxed, conversational and confident manner during his discussion about his home life which had the audience in stitches. Charlotte Van der Ploeg, of Queenwood, placed second with her talk on ‘If I could have one superpower, it would be…’.
It is the sixth year the event has been held, and is also an opportunity for students to learn about the NSW Parliament. Students sat in the Legislative Assembly, and the Sergeant at Arms presented the mace, as would normally happen at the beginning of a Parliamentary session. They also had a go at being politicians, with a Speaker in the chair and lots of ‘yays’ and ‘nays’. They were quite a sedate lot, compared to the Bear Pit normally seen in parliaments of Australia. Perhaps kids getting the vote would not be such a bad thing after all.