St Mary's College has made a winning start to its 2008/9 public speaking campaign. The school was successful in the branch heat of the English Speaking Union's national public speaking event and will now compete in the Liverpool finals at the city centre Athenaeum at the end of January.  This is the tenth successive year that St Mary's has reached the Liverpool finals.  In 2002 and 2006 the school subsequently went on to reach the national finals of the competition in London.

The ESU event for year 10 and 11 pupils is designed to promote clear communication, with the youngsters being encouraged to pit their wits against one another in a polite, non-adversarial way.  Competitors are trained to listen carefully and speak confidently in a wide variety of contexts, adapting what they say and how they say it to different situations and people.

Head of Sixth Form, Mr. Magill, commented: "I am very pleased that we have made a successful start in the competition thanks to some high-quality public speaking from the team members.  St Mary's has a very impressive track record in this event and we have high hopes that we can build on this success in this year's competition."