Petra shines at public speaking event

A highly competitive junior inter-schools public speaking competition was held at Petra College Junior in Bulawayo on Tuesday.

The competition, the school’s first, was between 11 schools which are Centenary Primary School, St Thomas Aquinas Primary, Masiyephambili Junior School, Coghlan Primary School, Tennyson Primary School, Khumalo Primary School, Petra College, Riverdale Academy Junior College, Faith Christian College Junior Academy and Froggy Pond School.

The event’s host, Faith Dube, a teacher at Petra College Junior said she was impressed by the success of the event saying they are going to host a spelling bee competition at the school next year

Each of the schools had one pupil presenting a prepared speech and the other presenting an impromptu speech. A total of 44 pupils participated in the competition which had a junior section (Grade 4 or 5) and senior section (Grade 6 or 7).

What stood out was the confidence of those who presented impromptu speeches. One could be excused for concluding that they rehearsed the speeches for a whole month.

Petra Junior emerged winners followed by Centenary Primary School. In third position was St Thomas followed by Masiyephambili, Coghlan and Khumalo Primary School.

For their efforts, the winners were presented with a trophy by media personality, Arthur C Evans who was the competition’s compère. The trophy will have the school’s name engraved and the school will keep it until the next competition next year.

The best female speaker from the senior section was Mercy Sibanda from Petra College Junior and the best male speaker was Mphathi Donga from St Thomas. They both walked away with medals, a US$20 voucher courtesy of Slice Pizzeria and lunch bags with goodies courtesy of Asher Paints.

Sibanda shone with her outstanding speech titled “If I could time travel” while Donga presented an educative speech titled “Dangers of mobile phones”. In the third position was Sisanda Sibanda from Coghlan Primary School with her well-presented speech titled “Laughter the best medicine”.

Under the juniors section, in position one was Joana Majono (Centenary Primary School) with her speech titled “Time”. On position two was Sharna Kay (Petra College Junior) with her eloquently presented speech titled “The Deserted Home”. In the third position was Anotida Mutizwa (Masiyephambili Primary School) with her astonishing speech titled “No education no life”.

The winners in both sections got a Nonfiction book courtesy of Noleen Hancock, three medals of gold, silver and bronze courtesy of Investogram and certificates courtesy of Petra College Junior.

For participating, the 44 contestants were presented with caps, T-shirts, pencil cases, stationery and certificates of participation which were presented by Ms Lydia Shoko, a teacher at Petra College Junior.

The judges were Heleen Tink from Whitestone Primary School, Miss Sheriffa from Carmel School and Mrs Othilda from Petra College Senior. The evaluators were Jane Boswell, Isaac Chikosi and Tatenda Maswera.
Boswell commended the contestants for doing exceptionally well. — @TashaMutsiba