On June 7th Year 9 took part in a Public Speaking Half Day led by our Public Speaking Co-Ordinator, Miss Gordon. The aim of the morning was to enable students to feel more confident when speaking to an audience and to show how through public speaking you can capture hearts and change minds  – to speak out without freaking out!

Miss Gordon emphasised how each of us has views to share; input to give; ideas to spread. Every person has value but if we allow anxiety to get in the way of that, we miss out, your class misses out; society misses out.  And as a result we lose valuable, diverse voices.

In groups students discussed what holds people back in different situations, whether it is answering questions in class, introducing a speaker, asking a question or networking or meeting unfamiliar people.

Miss Gordon spoke about how we can re-frame our nerves – all with the aim of building confidence. Symptoms of feeling nervous can be managed by using tactics such as taking a deep breath, holding something cold (your pen), making grand gestures, moving around and being succinct. She acknowledged that it can feel difficult to ‘get rid of’ anxiety. But why try? Maybe it is better to manage anxiety, but not get rid of it as nerves can be helpful. The nerves can actually give us energy, adrenalin, and tell us that what we are doing is important – whether it is making an important point, or suggestion, or helping us grow and progress in our communication skills plus self-confidence. Giving yourself permission to feel nervous also gives you a sense of agency.

The Year 9s were then challenged in groups to come up with a three minute presentation in which every member had to participate, without scripts or power point slides, using basic prompt cards. They were also encouraged to support their team members when they were not actually speaking themselves through positive body language. Points to consider when working together included the hook -how to ‘grab’ your attention, engage you in topic right from start; the different voices of speakers and writers, the ability to persuade, what makes an effective presentation, how to create a sense of togetherness and engagement with your audience and pace and clarity, not to mention the power of the pause!

Students chose from a range of topics for their presentations, including:

• The greatest challenge currently facing the world is…
• All single use plastic should be banned.
• Voluntary work should be compulsory.
• There is still magic in the world.
• Peaceful protest is the best way to evoke change.
• Drones are a menace to society!
• Do school uniforms make school a more effective place to learn?
• Free tickets should be used to promote female sport.
• The arts have become the elitist preserve of the rich.
• Songwriters have more relevance than Shakespeare.
• Comedians should have to apologise for their jokes.

In the next exercise in pairs, students practised describing something they enjoyed doing in their spare time, while thinking about their movement, body language, facial expression during their task.

The session ended with a ‘Pop Up’ game to practice eye contact, hand gestures, facial expressions.  A topic flashed onto the board and someone in each group had to ‘pop up’ and start speaking about the topic until a new one comes up, when they can sit down.

The morning highlighted the fact that there is no one ‘right’ way to communicate: communication is not a performance. It is a conversation where you can ask questions – it’s talking, rather than a ‘speech’. It’s not about performing or trying to be someone else, it’s about honing what you already have within you and playing to your character strengths. The key message throughout was ‘practice makes progress, not perfect.’

One Year 9 said of the public speaking workshop, “thank you! I really enjoyed it and it was super helpful. I was talking to my friends about it and they also loved it a lot. I really appreciated it.”

Miss Gordon was very proud of all of the students for managing to speak without notes on the day.