South Coogee Public School provides opportunities for students in all years to be involved in classroom and competitive Public Speaking activities.
Our school participates in the Sydney Region Public Speaking Competition, which is integrated in to the school’s English Program. All students are introduced to the elements of successful Public Speaking and are required to produce and perform a speech for yearly assessment. Successful students then compete and represent the school in a competitive environment.
Year 5 and 6 students are also able to participate in the Sydney Region debating competition and the Premier’s Debating Challenge.
Sydney Region debating is an opportunity for interested confident public speakers to develop their skills further. This competition is at introductory level as students receive their topic a day before debating. They are then able to prepare their arguments and have limited availability to a teacher to help guide them in their debating preparation.
Premier’s debating is at the highest level for students in Years 5 and 6. Every debate in the challenge is a 1 hour preparation debate. Teams do not know the topic or which side of the debate they are on until 1 hour before the debate starts. Once the preparation time is up, 3 speakers from each team take turns to speak, with a 4th silent speaker helping out during preparation and during the debate.