Speech and Recitation Contest

The speech and recitation contest came under attack amongst safety concerns this year. The Japanese Debate was called off, but with a record number of students interested, the speech and recitation contests went ahead.

This year 13 students applied for the speech contest and 15 for the recitation. Rehersals took place in empty classrooms or outside, with limited people present. The students woked hard to memorise their recitations. The speech contest students thought hard about their contents and how to effectively deliver them. Most of these students had experience from the recitation contest or speech contest last year, and were ambitious in their content, imaginative with their presentation.

The whole school could not gather for the speech and recitation as with usual years, so this year the talkers were recorded. This was an entirely new experience for most of the competitors. It was difficult to look and gesture into the camera, to persevere through mistakes knowing they were being recorded. In many ways, it was a more daunting experience than the live performance in front of eight hundred! Many thanks to Yamamura Kokusai Broadcasting Club for their patience and professionalism throughout the recording, and to the Principal for letting us use his room.

The whole school watched the performances in their homerooms. Winners were decided by the English Department, with special awards for the most popular as voted by all students.

The level of competitors was notably high this year. Although the first years performed well, the improvement in the second years was clear, and again the third years were a step beyond.

Congratulations to all competitors.