On Saturday 4 February, Head of English, Mrs Mayes and our senior team of Year 9 girls, Emma, Kathleen and Cecily, visited Oxted School for the semi-final of Youth Speaks. The annual national competition encourages speaking and presentation skills in young people and showcases superb quality speakers.
There were 6 teams competing and the standard was very high indeed – each of the qualifying teams had already won their district heats.
Emma was Chairperson, Kathleen was main speaker and Cecily presented the Vote of Thanks. Their presentation was called ‘Music Today: Automated or Authentic?’ and argued the point that music today appears to have lost its authenticity due to automated computer software.
The girls received very favourable comments after their talk from members of The Rotary resulting in the judges awarding Cecily a special commendation and a trophy for the ‘Best Vote of Thanks’. We were the only school other than the winning team (St Catherine’s, Bramley) to receive a special mention and award.
Mr John RM Thom, Chairman of the Youth Committee for the Rotary Club of Dorking said “Really well done to Cecily for winning the Best Vote – a well deserved recognition of a splendid performance. I felt that the whole team from Manor House School acquitted themselves very well indeed.”