Toby Wins Jack Petchey's "Speak Out" Challenge 2024

Wednesday 10 July 2024

Following our success at regional level in the first year of entering the Jack Petchey "Speak Out" Challenge, in this our second year of participation, Toby Y, Fourth Form took the Vaughan to the Grand Final with his speech 'Kindness is Key' and won!

The competition sponsored by the Jack Petchey Foundation and run by the Speakers Trust works with schools and colleges across London and Essex to promote communication skills through expert led workshops and coaching. The English department worked alongside the organisation to host a day of sessions where every student in fourth form were given the opportunity to ‘speak out’ to an audience about a topic they were passionate about. Four were chosen to present their speeches in front of the year group and two were selected to represent the Vaughan at the regional finals.

Ms Mullen, Deputy Head of English and Inclusion Co-ordinator, comments: "On behalf of the English department, I would like to congratulate Toby on his wonderful achievement and look forward to planning with him how his prize fund for the school will be spent supporting all students in the Vaughan community in developing oracy and public speaking skills through a series of projects and poet in residence programme. I would also like to thank Ms Drury who coordinated our involvement in the programme this year."

Well done, Toby! Click here to watch the full speech.

Jack Petchey "Speak Out" Challenge 2024