St Mary's College will represent the North West in the London final of a prestigious national public speaking competition later this month. The school qualified for the UK finals of the English Speaking Union event after seeing off the challenge of four other schools in the regional final held at the Grange School in Hartford, Cheshire. Just ten schools from an original entry of more than 500 will compete in the final at the City of London Boys¹ School on Saturday April 25th.  They will include schools from all over England as well as Welsh and Scottish representatives.  This is the third time that St Mary's has made it through to the national final of the competition.  The school has never won the overall prize, although one of the team picked up an individual award when St Mary's reached the final for the first time seven years ago.

This year's three-pupil team consists of Chair Katherine Orme, Questioner Gabriel Bean and Speaker Alice Mackay.

The topic for discussion in the regional final was ‘Everybody should study Shakespeare at school'.  In the final they will be debating the idea that ‘Cookery is an overvalued art'.

Head of Sixth Form, Daniel Magill, commented: "I am absolutely delighted that we have made it through to the London final.  The school is very lucky to have such skilful and engaging speakers. What I really appreciate in them is that, as well as presenting their own views, they listen courteously to the opinions of others.  We're now set for a very exciting weekend in the capital at the end of the month and everyone at St Mary's is hoping we can make it third time lucky this year" added Mr Magill.

The ESU public speaking competition for year 10 and 11 pupils is designed to promote clear communication, with the young people 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.

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