The John Campbell Speaking Competition

St Paul’s Junior School has a long tradition of holding an annual verse speaking competition, introduced by the first Head of Junior School, Reverend John Campbell.

By continuing the tradition, the competition now aims to value Reverend Campbell’s contribution to our school, and to instil an appreciation of poetry amongst our students. All Junior School students are invited to take part.

The competition is stage-based, and students are each given a poem to learn and recite. They are encouraged to have fun with the poem and demonstrate the characteristics of excellent speakers, including articulation, voice projection, memorisation, facial expression and characterisation.

This year, the Central Idea for the competition was “Poems that rhyme can be entertaining.” Students recited works from poets such as Shelby Greer, A.A Milne and Jodee Samano, to name a few. Every student who entered the competition presented their poem in a heat round. Successful students from the heats were then required to learn a second poem and present both poems in the

finals, performing to an audience consisting of peers, teachers, parents and judges. I would like to thank Reverend John Campbell and Mrs Emma Wynne-Jones (Head of Department – English) for attending and judging the competition – I know it was an extremely hard task!

Congratulations to all the students who participated in the competition. They are to be commended on their effort and enthusiasm.

Nicole Cremona

Deputy Head of Junior School (Welfare and Organisation)