Public speaking competition a hit Secondary pupils talk up the subject of social media
On March 14 the second heat of the Crown Prosecutors public speaking competition was held at St Aidan’s High School.
The event was organised and sponsored by Crown Prosecution office who were represented as officials from the department showed up to judge the event. The judges were William Craig from the Procurator Fiscal’s Office, Maria Kowalalczyk, a depute, and Linda McCaffer who is also from the Procurator Fiscal’s Office.
They judged speeches from three teams from three schools.
The three schools were Calderside Academy, Cardinal Newman and St Aidan’s High.
The event was also chaired by St Aidan’s english teacher Miss McGrogan.
The issue the teams had to cover was “Social Media is the enemy of equality”. Each team were free to present their opinions on the subject including whether they agreed or disagreed with the statement and their different takes on the subject matter. The first team to speak was Heather Linn and Hannah Boyd, S3 pupils from Calderside Academy in Blantyre.
They argued that social media is an enemy of inequality as it helps to promote unrealistic standards for males and females.
They discussed the effects that cyberbullying has on both genders as well as the role of stereotypes on social media.
The second team was Rebekah Feeney and Jenna Moss from Cardinal Newman in Bellshill. They had an insightful presentation on the effect social media has on the LGBT community, feminists and race.
They argued that social media isn’t an enemy of equality as it gives a place for communities that suffer hate to come together and unite online with other, similar people.
The third team to speak was Devlin O’Neill and Ella Mckendrick from St Aidan’s High.
The pupils presented their argument that Social Media is not an enemy of equality as social media isn’t the problem but society is. They argued that society led people to using social media to spread hate and that it was a social problem.
They then argued that there were a lot more sources of inequality in the world than social media and that social media isn’t solely to blame for the problems faced. Once the final presentation concluded the judges retired to determine which team had won the competition.
St Aidan’s acting headteacher Miss Connelly was pleased with the enthusiasm of all the pupils involved and saw it as an excellent opportunity for young people to gain confidence in forming opinions and communicating them with others.
She saw the benefits that the event had for the future of pupils as “public speaking is useful in a large amount of jobs”. Finally she said that it was “fantastic for crown prosecutors to be in and give their knowledge to pupils in the school”.
After much deliberation the judges came to a conclusion. After a speech from William Craig where he stated that the calibre of the event was “Breathtaking given the age and stage of the pupils involved”, the judges announced the winner. They decided that the victor was the team from St Aidan’s.
Senior depute Linda McCaffer said that she was highly impressed with the quality of all students as well as that the competition helps “Give a taste of public speaking and the skills needed”. Maria Kowalczyk, depute, said she was “genuinely excited for the finals” and that the event will help the pupils “learn to deal with the pressures of public speaking when they are young”.
St Aidan’s English teacher and chairperson Miss McGrogan said that she was absolutely delighted at the efforts of all the young people involvedand that that event was “very, very close” and had an “extremely high standard”.
The finals of the competition will take place on Thursday, March 30 at the Hamilton Sheriff Court and will have an official judge presiding over the events.