St John Lloyd school teams win Rotary public speaking area final

by Robert Lloyd

The teams from Llanelli’s St John Lloyd school emerged victorious from the Llanelli-Swansea area final of the Rotary Youth Speaks public speaking competition.

The Llanelli school beat off strong competition from Ysgol Gyfun Gymraeg Bryn Tawe in Swansea to win both the junior and senior events in the competition staged at Llanelli Town Hall.

The St John Lloyd junior team debated ‘Once a cheat, always a cheat’, with Chairman Sophie Ayres and Vote of Thanks Proposer Charlotte Rees also winning individual awards.

The best individual junior Speaker award went to Branwen Cleaver, of Bryn Tawe, who took as her subject, ‘Fatima Whitbread, unsung sporting hero’.

In the senior category, there was a clean sweep for St John Lloyd, with Yasmin Rai judged the best Chairman, Lloyd Haines winning the Speaker prize and Connor Charles picking up the Vote of Thanks Proposer prize. The team debated ‘Sport is a unifier’.

The teams from St John Lloyd won their way through to the area final by winning the Llanelli Rotary Club Youth Speaks event at Llanelli Town Hall.

The teams will now compete in a Rotary District Final to be held at Crickhowell on March 5.

The winners were presented with certificates and gift tokens by Assistant District Governor Rotarian Clive Edwards.

Pictured left to right with Mr Edwards are – Branwen Cleaver, Connor Charles, Lloyd Haines, Yasmin Rai, Sophie Ayres, Charlotte Rees and Sion Davies.

The judges were the Rev Eldon Phillips, Ann Brace and Catherine Evans-Williams.

The ‘Questioner’ role in the debates was taken by Llanelli Rotarian Alison Evans.

The MC for the evening was Llanelli past president Robert Lloyd.

Llanelli Rotary Club president Graham Williams explained that the Youth Speaks event offered an opportunity for Llanelli pupils to gain experience of speaking on a public platform.

He said: “It allows young people to form ideas on significant subjects and learn high standards of expression, presentation and appearance. It also gives pupils the experience of accepting impartial assessments and constructive criticism.”

Mr Williams added: “The standard was exceptionally high in the area final and, as the chairman of the judges, the Rev Eldon Phillips, remarked on the night, there were no real losers. Finding winners in both categories was an extremely difficult task for the judges.”