Junior Speaking Contest 2025

• REMEM
• Middelbare school
• vwo
• Leerjaar 3

Junior Speaking Contest 

Assignment

• Everyone will present their speech in class. 
• The class will pick the top three, from the three groups two will be chosen to represent our school in the regional contest. 

What is the Junior Speaking Contest?

The Junior Speaking Contest is an annual contest Organized by the British Council and the European Platform since 2004.. 

Who can participate?

The Contest is for all TTO secondary schools in The Netherlands. Contestants from the second and third years can participate.  

What do the contestants need to do?

Students, will give a Speech in English and are able to answer questions about their topic and speech. The speech needs to be between 2,5 - 3 minutes long

What is the criteria?

Speeches will be judged on the following criteria: 

Topic of the Speech

Structure

Clarity

Originality 

Answering questions

Topic 

Topic for the year 2025:

"It 's not crazy, it's brilliant" 

What is a Speech?

A speech is talk about a topic which lasts a max of 3 minutes . 

Which has the following purpose or goal:

to inform, persuade, motivate or entertain. 

Before you start writing, decide what your goal is.

  

"It's not crazy, but brilliant!"

An idea that might sound a little weird at first – but it's actually genius!

With this topic, you’ll use your lessons to develop a persuasive and entertaining speech that takes a seemingly strange policy and proves why it’s actually a brilliant solution.

You need to convince your audience that what sounds odd might just be a smart idea after all! 

Get creative, develop strong arguments, and present a compelling case. 

Ideas

1. There should be a strict ban on wearing outdoor shoes indoors.

2. Healthy young people can only go on vacation after they have completed a marathon first.

3. Everyone must be required to communicate using hand puppets for one hour per week.

4. Instead of large traffic fines, offenders must work as a traffic warden for one day.

5. All birthday presents must be homemade; no store-bought gifts allowed.

How will you be assessed?

• Content 
• Expression and delivery
• Questions

How to write a speech?

.

Introduction –

 The early minutes of a talk are important to establish your credibility and likeability. Personal anecdotes often work well to get things started. This is also where you’ll outline your main points.

Body –

Get to the issues you’re there to address, limiting them to five points at most. Then bolster those few points with illustrations, evidence and anecdotes. Be passionate: your conviction can be as persuasive as the appeal of your ideas.

Conclusion –

Wrap up with feeling as well as fact. End with something upbeat that will inspire your listeners.

How to start

1. What problems does this policy solve?

2. How will you specifically implement your policy?  

3. How could this policy change people’s behavior or habits for the better?

   

 4. What examples or evidence can you use to support this idea?

5. What are some surprising benefits of this policy?

6. What objections might people have to this policy, and how would you address them?

Two things that stood out in this speech?

Difference between this winner
and the runner up?

Ideas for this year's topic:
"It's not crazy, but brilliant "

Other ideas! 

6. Shops must be closed during office/school hours and may only be open in the evenings and on the weekends. 

7 .Every  school must implement a mandatory daily nap between 12:00 and 14:00. 

Brainstorm session

* create a mindmap,  wordweb  with ideas for the topic 

"It's not crazy, but brilliant "

* what are the first things that come to mind? 

-Think about people who inspire you, ideas, ventures, projects-

More Ideas

8.All votes in elections must be made public, so that everyone knows who you voted for. 

9. Schools should be required to hold a 'reverse school day' once a year, where students teach a lesson to their teachers. 

10.Everyone must work one day a year in the cleaning service of their own workplace. 

To make your speech better:

• Give it rhythm. A good speech has pacing.
• Vary the sentence structure. Use short sentences. Use occasional long ones to keep the audience alert. Fragments are fine if used sparingly and for emphasis.
• Use the active voice and avoid passive sentences. Active forms of speech make your sentences more powerful.

To make your speech even better:

• Repeat key words and points. Besides helping your audience remember something, repetition builds greater awareness of central points or the main theme.
• Ask rhetorical questions in a way that attracts your listeners’ attention.
• Personal experiences and anecdotes increase points and  connect with the audience.
• Use quotes. Good quotes work on several levels, forcing the audience to think. Make sure quotes are clearly attributed and said by someone your audience will probably recognize.

And remember PERFECT

P-ersonal anecdotes to bring your speech to life

E-motive language to persuade your audience.

R-hetorical questions to make your audience listen. 

F-igurative language such as metaphors and similes. 

E-mphasis through repetition and the rule of three.

C-omparison and contrast to make your points clear.

T-one of voice that is relevant and persuasive for your specific audience.

Deadline

When?

12th of May 2025, Purmerend Da Vinci College. (for the speeches that were chosen)

Speeches in class, start the week after the trip to England on the 7th of April

What?

- Two of the best speeches from year 3 are going to represent WF with their speech in Volendam.

- it needs to be three  minutes long

- all student will present their speech in class,  Two students from each of the three classes  will be picked to present in the theater

How?

-The class will pick the best three per class, from the nine best speeches max two will be sent to the regional contest. 

REMEMBER

This assignment will be graded as a 2 test speaking test. 

Next few lessons you can work on this in class

00:00

How did Zak and James meet?

1. At university
2. From school
3. Through a friend of a friend
4. They have only just met

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dtZ-Ra77kn0&t=199s

Session One

The Introduction

Get the audience's attention with a story, quotation, personal experience, etc.

Identify the topic and indicate why it is relevant, important, or interesting.

Establish your credibility through words or behavior.

Briefly introduce yourself, especially if the audience may not know you. Mention your name and your relevant background or expertise.

So.....

Don't get distracted

Don't go off script

Open with your hook, the way you have planned it.

One possibility is to start with a story.

But make sure it is relevant to the topic of your speech,

otherwise people will wonder why you are telling this story. 

Keep your story very concise. End the story with a moral to the story... the key insight. 

Your story should take about 30 seconds.

A second way of starting a speech could be to ask rhetorical questions of the audience?

Don't get the audience to answer your questions as it will take too long.

Or you could open by sharing a powerful  quotation.

Find a relevant quotation that makes an impact  and double check that your quotation is correctly quoted and attributed to the right person

Or open with an interesting fact or statistic

This works well if you have some attention grabbing fact relevant to your topic. You might find this when you are looking for information/research about your topic.

"Would it surprise you to know ....."

You could combine several of these opening ideas. 

. 

Now, try and brainstorm something you could give a speech on using the topic "It's not crazy, but brilliant!"

Remember, it should be a persuasive and entertaining speech that takes a seemingly strange policy and proves why it’s actually a brilliant solution.

You need to convince your audience that what sounds odd might just be a smart idea after all! 

Session 2

Essay Feedback

• Help with your speech for the speaking competition
• The main argument
• Work on your speech

Last week

We looked at good introductions.....

This week ....

we will work on the main body of your speech

Using passion to persuade

If you have an important point to make, don’t try to be subtle or clever. Use a pile driver. Hit the point once. Then come back and hit it again. Then hit it a third time – a tremendous whack.

— Winston Churchill

One of the most important things to remember when delivering a speech is that your passion for the topic will be more obvious to the audience than anything else. The audience will be able to see, hear and feel your passion through your facial expression, your voice, and your emphasis.

Facial expression

Your facial expression is important. If you smile, your audience will smile. If you frown, your audience will pick up on that mood. The best expression for speaking is a neutral expression, followed by a pause when you want to emphasise a point. Make your point, close your mouth, and pause for two or three seconds. Then continue.

Finally......

Inspiration from someone who really did know how to give a great speech.

You can work in or outside the classroom

TIP: Time is short, we have another assignment before you go to England....And NO LESSONS TOMORROW!

Don't waste this time

3. Final lesson - Speech giving

Speaking in public can be daunting. There are some things that you can practise to help you become a confident at delivering a speech.

By working on your performance skills, your voice, and your planning, you can become a speaker to challenge the very best.

www.bbc.co.uk

How to end your speech

And that is (your brilliant idea)

What I talked about was (summarise your points)

The first thing I want you to do when you leave here today is ...

Thank you

Are there any questions?

Example: 

And that is what I think about every school implementing a mandatory daily nap between 12:00 and 14:00. We know that this is common practice in workplaces in Japan for instance and the good result this has had on workers productivity. The first thing I want you to do when you get back to your school is to start campaigning for sleeping pods at school along with changing the timetable so that all students and their teachers can nap between 12:00 and 14:00. 

Thank you and are there any questions

14th of May 

Purmerend

Friends and family welcome. 

Two representatives from WF

We will give our speeches in class in the week you return from the trip to England:  8-9-10 April

2 test assignment

Vote for our class representatives for school finals on the 10th of April

Next week..... 

Canterbury Tales assignment

40 minute timetable!!!