Public Speaking at Ampleforth
Over the weekend, three boys headed off to Ampleforth for a weekend of public speaking. We arrived on Saturday in time for a delicious lunch and greeted pupils from St Mary's School in Melrose, also there for the weekend. After a lively debate over lunch, we started an afternoon of sessions on public speaking run by the staff at Ampleforth, including how to prepare and structure a speech and how to make our arguments really persuasive.
The pupils then chose their topics and got to work, writing their speeches and discussing their ideas. After all our hard work, it was time for supper and a great evening in one of the boarding houses, making pancakes and playing pool and XBox!
On Sunday, the pupils polished their speeches, pairing up with the St Mary's pupils and giving each other some really thoughtful feedback. They then performed their speeches in the afternoon to an audience of parents, as well as teachers and students of Ampleforth. It was a daunting experience but the boys did exceptionally well. Matthew impressed everyone with his really informative and well-researched talk about palm oil; Alfie tackled the subject of racism and was able to use audience participation to make his argument really clear; and Gabriel challenged our views of the paparazzi, using his trademark humour to win over his audience.
Thank you to the staff and students of Ampleforth for organising a great weekend - and to the pupils of St Mary's for being such good company - but particularly well done to Matthew, Alfie and Gabriel for delivering some really engaging and persuasive speeches.