Public Speking Competition Win For TGS Sixth Formers

Write up of the evnt from Sixth Form student Honey Coleby

On Tuesday the 11th of March 2025, Thomas Gainsborough School Sixth Form made history - they won the Bury St Edmunds Rotary Club Public Speaking Competition! It was a tough competition and yet to the team’s surprise, having misheard the announcement and thinking that we had come last place, accepted the trophy with honour and pride! 

 

The competition involved teams of 3 from a select few secondary schools and sixth forms, writing and performing a speech of about 5 minutes in length to a panel of judges from Bury St Edmund’s Rotary Club on any topic they like. They were then ranked on their oracy and performance to an audience. Our team consisted of Phoebe Ware and Matthew Fairbairn and myself, Honey Coleby. Each of us took up the roles of Chairperson (this was Phoebe’s role which involved introducing ourselves and the topic without giving too much away of the content to come), the Speaker (this was my role; it involved researching the topic and providing the argument for the main body of the speech), and finally the ‘General’ which involved providing a conclusion to the points made by the Speaker (this was performed by Matthew). Given that we all loved history, with both myself and Matthew taking it for an A Level, we chose the title ‘How great of a monarch was Elizabeth I?’, something I also happened to be passionate about. The speech detailed that, despite her current popularity and perceived greatness as a feminist icon, Elizabeth I may have overshadowed the significance and importance of the queens that came before and after her. In my research, I found a few similarities between Elizabeth’s reign and her sister, Mary I, which led me to conclude that perhaps Elizabeth was influenced by Mary in more ways than initially thought by many; for despite their 17 year age difference, Elizabeth was around and close to Mary while her sister ruled. 

 

The other schools performed some really interesting speeches; for instance, the benefits of AI, as well as the rather funny debate of ‘Is the Jaffa cake a biscuit or a cake?’, where Phoebe went up and offered the team each a Jaffa cake, after discovering she had an unopened box in her backpack! 

 

Overall, it was an amazing experience, especially as it was my first time doing a public speaking competition, and I’m so glad I got to work with the team I was with! All the other teams from the other schools and colleges did spectacularly, especially the TGS Year 9 team, who brought a more personal and heartwarming feel to their speech, discussing a personal issue for one of the team members. I’m sure I can speak to all the TGS students who participated in this competition when I say that it was quite the achievement, and a surprise, when we won first place for our school, winning not only a handsome trophy, but also a Waterstones voucher (something I very much enjoyed spending!)

Thank you for Miss Fairs and Mr Alexander for giving us the opportunity to do this, as well as chauffeuring us to County High Secondary School in Bury St Edmunds, who we are grateful for hosting this event. We’d also like to thank the Rotary Club for organising and judging the competition! 

Well done to our Sixth Form Team!