By Tilda J, Year 11

On Tuesday the 21st of March I was honoured to have the opportunity to represent the school in the final of the GDST-wide Chrystall Carter Public Speaking competition held at Sheffield High Girls School. 

This trustwide competition is named after the late GDST Legal Advisor Chrystall Carter, who held this position for nine years until her untimely death in 1999. She had a powerful belief in the power of reasoned argument and pushed for public speaking to take a higher role in the GDST. 

Several years ago her husband began the competition in her honour, and last Tuesday five students from all different parts of the country, (Birkenhead, Oxford High School, Croydon and Portsmouth) presented their speeches on some of the most prevalent debates in modern society to compete for the final. 

After getting through the first in-school round and the semifinals, hosted in Northwood College and judged by a range of experts in their fields – from a lawyer working on death row cases in America to the woman starring as Heather Duke in Heathers on the West End! – I was one of the five finalists.

My topic was ‘Do Artists have a moral duty to be political with their work?’ However, girls talked on many subjects, from whether it was too late to save the world from climate change to how we could move towards de-structuring Western commercialism! It was wonderful to hear the variety of excellent speakers, and getting to know the hosts at Sheffield was a real highlight of the day. 

It was tough competition and although I didn’t bring home the trophy it was still a great opportunity and I loved being able to present on a topic I am passionate about. It was really helpful for learning about both writing and presenting a speech and my delivery has definitely improved since.