Rotary Youth Speaks District Winners 2017

The Rotary Club of Colwyn Bay held their annual Youth Speaks public speaking competition last night when 8 teams from local schools and colleges competed to win and progress to regional finals. 
Each team, consisting of 3 students - the Chairperson, the main Speaker and the Vote of Thanks were able to choose any topic to discuss and debate for the evening's competition.

Coleg Llandrillo entered two teams - Team A discussing the highly topical Brexit and the Single Market with the B Team focusing on Animal Testing for Cosmetics. The teams were made up of members from the newly created Quibble Club of Coleg Llandrillo and this was their inaugural competition. 

Unfortunately the B Team suffered a crushing blow in that one team member was unable to attend the competition and IB student Morgan Hogan, who has been chosen to fight for her place on the Wales team in Cardiff this summer, spoke of her disappointment. Morgan is hoping to represent Wales in Bali, Indonesia in the World Schools Debating Championship after winning the coveted award of 'Outstanding Debator' in the North Wales Schools Debating Championship in Bangor last October.

From left to right: IB students Keziah Lewin and Morgan Hogan

Team A however took to the floor in style, articulating the effect Brexit would have on the UK and just what the single market was. They responded in detail to the questions posed and showed a depth of knowledge and a passion for their subject.

All students spoke of their enjoyment of their first public debating competition and they are looking forward to future events with the Quibble Club, with their next outing to Manchester's EYPUK in February. 

From left to right: Iman Amica, Thomas Porter, Luke Spellman

The winners of the Senior section were the Coleg Llandrillo team of Iman Amica, Thomas Porter and Luke Spellman. The winning Intermediate section was the Rydal Penrhos team of Sydney Johnson, Kevin Farrell and Cerys Cuddihy.