ESU Public Speaking Victory – 11th February 2014

ESU Public Speaking Victory – 11th February 2014
One of the Bennett teams who took part in tonight’s
regional heat of the ESU Public Speaking Competition
have beaten eight other teams from seven schools to
progress to the South-East Regional Final, which will
take place in London next month. Isobel Boshoff was
chairperson, Lily Turvey was the speaker and Leah
Bonello was the questioner.
As so many schools were taking part in the Tunbridge
Wells round, the evening was divided into two heats,
with the winning team from each heat progressing to a
head-to-head final at the end of the night. The other
Bennett team (Georgia Cherry as chairperson, Emily
Bacchus-Waterman as speaker and Lily Catling as
questioner) were up against a team from TWGGS as well as
teams from Tonbridge School, Cornwallis Academy and
Beechwood Sacred Heart School. The Bennett team was
praised for a strong performance, but it was TWGGS who
were put through to the final.
Meanwhile, Isobel, Lily and Leah won their heat, beating
teams from TWGGS, Walthamstow Hall and Mayfield Girls’
School. They took on board all the constructive feedback
given to them after the heat and used it to give an extremely
strong performance in the final against the team from
TWGGS. Lily spoke against the death penalty, delivering an
impressive speech and handling very difficult questions confidently and convincingly. Isobel was
praised for being very convincing in the role of chairperson and Leah impressed the judges with her
‘forensic’ approach to questioning, advancing the topic through insightful and mature questions.
They were then announced as the deserving winners of the whole evening. They will therefore now
progress to the South-East Regional Final in London in March; should they win, the final stage would
be the National Final in April! Good luck to the girls and
well done for being such fantastic ambassadors for
Bennett.

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