From Andrew P Bennett District 91 Youth Leadership Adviser
How good to be able to share with you news from Toastmasters Julia Kettlewell and Mark Mortimer who are coordinating a Toastmasters Youth Leadership program at Westminster Academy.
We are particularly excited as this is our very first collaboration with Rotary Interact – a youth work which the Rotarians have established splendidly at the school. Indeed the program participants are already looking towards participating in the Rotary Youth Speaks Contest in 2015.
Ten 6th formers have attended 3 sessions so far. They have been making good use of storytelling techniques to bring their Ice Breaker Speeches to life and express their points of view with clarity. A panel discussion proved a great success as did their first venture into the wonderful world of Table Topics!
Session 4 looks in more depth at organizing your speech, learning to speak from the audience’s perspective and having, already discussed what makes a good opening, we move on to what makes a fine conclusion to a speech.
It is wonderful to have Toastmaster Mark (from sponsoring club Excalibur Advanced Speakers) Toastmaster Julia (the very able President of Grosvenor Square Speakers), Rotary Interact and accompanying teacher from the Academy Ashraf Shah Noor working together alongside the young people as they discover their Speaking and Leadership Skills.
Westminster Academy YLP takes place once a month on a Tuesday morning. Feel free to contact Julia or Mark if you would like to attend as a guest. We always let our schools know in advance if there is to be a visitor at the session and respect the signing in/security badge protocols.
If you do attend it is highly likely that you will find yourself participating in the speaking. There is nothing better than witnessing first hand how the Toastmasters Youth Leadership Program enhances and extends the participants skills. These are skills that they will take with them throughout their lives.