Pictured above: Sam Turnpenny, Tom Carswell and Thomas Mitchell
Brentwood School pupils, Sam Turnpenny, Tom Carswell and Thomas Mitchell triumphed in the Rotary District Public Speaking Competition on the 10th February 2011.
This was the second round of the national "Youth Speaks" competition, which is a competition between young public speaking teams in secondary schools. The district finals took place in the Chelmsford Council Chambers, where Brentwood School's team of third year pupils stood out as clear winners among competing schools.
The boys spoke on the topic: "Do parents worry too much about teenagers' use of computers?" The chairman, Sam Turnpenny, introduced the speech by talking about their collective computer usage. He handed over to the speaker, Tom Carswell, who pointed out that teenagers know how to handle computers and manage their dangers to use them as a useful tool; he concluded that parents do worry too much. Tom Mitchell added in his vote of thanks that he still prefers socialising with people face-to-face rather than through social networking websites. Upon winning, Sam said: "We were nervous and there was stiff competition. There were a lot of good teams and different styles of public speaking."
The next round of the competition will take place at Haileybury School in April, where the boys will compete at a regional level, hoping to get a place in the national finals in May. Brentwood's Mayor, David Tee, has witnessed the young team's public speaking skills and said to the boys: "You are a great credit to your parents, your teachers, yourselves and a great credit to Brentwood."