After successfully negotiating the Club and Area rounds, three of our Scouts took part today in the District Final of the Youth Speaks competition, sponsored by Rotary International.

This competition aims to offer young people:

 ·       experience in speaking on a public platform as a member of a team

·       an incentive to formulate ideas on topical subjects

·       discipline in dealing with a topic in a limited time

·       the opportunity of learning and practising high standards of expression, presentation and appearance

·       impartial feedback and assessment of performance by experienced adjudicators 

In this event, teams of three get to present their chosen topic to an audience within a set time. The team consists of a Chairman, who introduces the team and the topic; A Speaker who presents a 6 minute talk before answering a question posed by one of the judges; and a Vote of Thanks who rounds up and summarises the topic.

Our team were the only none-school team to make it this far in the District and faced competition from Schools across South Wales, from Pembrokeshire to Monmouthshire.

The team put together a fantastic presentation on "Anti-Social Media" discussing how the overuse of social media can impact on the lives of children and families.

The overall prize for the Intermediate category (11-13) went to Crickhowell School but we did come away with some honours.

One of our Patrol Leaders, Abi, impressed the judges with her well researched and presented argument to secure the prize for "Best Speaker"

Abi's talk closed with a poem she wrote specifically for the event. Due to time restrictions, only an edited version was included in her speech so we've included the full version here.