Mount St Joseph Girls’ College’s Erin Godfrey and Footscray High School’s Stanley Webb have advanced onto the finals of the Wynspeak public speaking competition, which tests the skills of secondary school students in Melbourne’s west annually.
Students from Bayside P-12 College, Footscray High School, Mt St Joseph’s Girls’ College, Williamstown High School and Victoria University Secondary College participated in the Hobsons Bay heat on Thursday, May 5 across a junior and a senior category.
Hosted by the Altona City Rotary Club and supported by a grant from the state government’s West Gate Neighbourhood Fund, the Hobsons Bay heat involved competitors presenting on a variety of topics across the five-minute prepared speeches and the two-minute unprepared presentations.
Club community services director Marg O’Neill said the competitors presented well.
“I had the pleasure of adjudicating the Wynspeak public speaking competition, and I was blown away,” she said.
“With teenagers of the calibre I heard tonight, the future of our country is in good shape.
“They spoke on topics from climate change, child marriage, airplane food, Facebook, profit versus environment, if you had an extra hour each week and lots more.”
The Wynspeak final will be held at Thomas Carr College in Tarneit on Wednesday, June 1.
