This half term Year 8 pupils have been working on persuasive speeches in their DLS lessons. They were tasked with finding a topic to write about and trying to persuade others to agree with their point of view.

There was a broad and interesting choice of topics from ‘The best meat to buy’ to ‘What the Ancient Greeks have given us’.  The aim was to speak for exactly 3 minutes and practice obviously makes perfect as a number of pupils were within 2 or 3 seconds of achieving their target! Everyone also chose a poem that was linked to their topic and learnt as much of this as they could by heart to present to the group.

The speeches were delivered to their peer group who also took part in marking and grading with Alex D coming out on top of the pupil rankings.  The teachers also felt that Alex’s speech on ‘Why I want to be a chef’ was the top piece of work in the year group and he is awarded a level 4 merit as a deserving winner.  In runner up position was Ethan R who gave a knowledgeable talk about the Ancient Greeks using challenging vocabulary and performed a small portion of Homer’s Odyssey.  Highly commended are Robert S who gave a thoughtful and sensitive speech about mental health, Lily W whose speech about cup cakes was enhanced by the dairy free cup cakes she brought to share with the group and Cecily C who impressed with a talk about the health benefits of skiing. 

Well done to all involved – it’s not easy to stand up in front of your peer group to speak and took a lot of courage.