There comes a point in most of our lives when we are called upon to speak before an audience, be it, for example, during a job interview, or when making a speech at a wedding or other function. To be able to speak with confidence on such occasions is a very useful life skill. In recognising this fact, and in order to provide a forum to help develop and challenge young people in the area, Wigan Rotary Club, in 2008, instigated an annual public speaking competition known as ‘Junior Speaks.’

Primary schools, within the local authority, are invited to participate in the competition by entering a team, or teams, to speak on a subject of their choice, (politics, race and religion excluded.) Each team consists of three Year 6 pupils who take on the respective roles of Chairperson, Speaker and Proposer of the Vote of Thanks, with a fourth member acting as reserve. The winning team is presented with the ‘Hoddinott Shield’, in memory of former Rotarian, Peter, and is held by the school for one year.

Over the past nine years ‘Junior Speaks’ has proved to be a great success, and its popularity, with teachers and children alike, is demonstrated by the fact that the number of participants has grown from year to year, the first year there were 6 schools, this year there were 27.

So bigger and better than ever before – the 2016 COMPETITION started on Monday, October 10th , for the first heats, Wednesday, 12th saw the second day of heats producing 8 teams going through to the final on Friday 14th October.

Each team rose to the challenge wonderfully. Their topics were broad based and challenging. In fact, it is true to say that these young people never cease to amaze and delight us with the quality of their presentations. The judges, as a result, had a very difficult job and there was little to separate some of the teams.

However, there could be only one winner and the Hoddinott Shield for 2016 went to Our lady’s PS Aspull. Many congratulations to them, under very stiff competition, they were worthy winners. Their Team were called ‘Young Politians’ and their topic was “The EU Referendum”.

The plaque, certificates and dictionaries were presented by Wigan Rotary President, Maureen Bilsbrough and the Hoddinott Shield by Mrs. Doreen Hoddinott, to a very excited team, who also received an invitation to go to The Owls on the 3rd November in order to repeat their winning performance for the members of Wigan Rotary Club at their lunchtime meeting. They then join the Mayor in his Parlour on 10th November too and will give their speech to him and invited guests.

Second place was awarded to the pupils from Worsley Mesnes PS, team name Worsley’s Fantastic Four, speaking on “Do Mistakes have Consequences”, who were hot on the heels of the winners, and third spot went to Aspull Church PS, team name Aspull Orators, speaking on “Childhood Obesity”.

Each school was presented with a certificate, and each child with an Usborne dictionary, to mark their achievement. It was a wonderful morning and a delight to witness such amazing, confident presentations from all the young people who participated for their schools. The Judges commented on the very high standard this year.