Well-spoken pupils reach national finals
For the first time, a team of students from Shipston High School has reached the grand national final of the Rotary Club ‘Youth Speaks’ competition.
In the competition the team members had to speak on a topic of their own choosing in front of a packed hall and a team of judges.
To get to the final the three Shipston High students, 14 year-olds Kim Haynes, and Charley Caufield, and Kate Higginson, aged 13, had to see off stiff competition in three ‘heats’ from schools across the local area, the district and the whole region which included schools in areas as wide apart as Wales, Staffordshire and Gloucestershire.
Along the way, they defeated teams from schools of all shapes and sizes including other local community schools, grammar schools and some top names from among the fee-paying, independent sector.
In each round of the competition the standard rose dramatically but the Shipston High School students showed they were more than up to raising their game to see off the competition.
Appropriately, this year the final of the competition is being held in Stratford upon Avon on 8 May. It is a major achievement for the team to have reached this far and all of Warwickshire will be rooting for them to win the final and really put both Shipston High School and the whole county on the map.
Headteacher Jonathan Baker said: “We are so proud of our pupils who have certainly proved, if the point needed proving, that Shipston High School students are the match of any students from any school across the country.”