Amazing showcase of oratory skills at the Girls’ School Rehu Tai Festival of Oral Language Finals

Close to 30 finalists between Year 4 and 8 showcased their brilliant oratory skills at the Girls’ School Rehu Tai Festival of Oral Language held during the term.

This year’s Rehu Tai Festival of Oral Language was hosted by eloquent Year 8 students, Sienna Dillury and Lola Makata, who capably introduced each speaker and kept the audience amused with their witty commentaries. Joanna Zhou, in Year 5, showed her talent as a musician entertaining the audience before the formal proceeding begun.

The finalists developed their pieces for their respective presentations based on the theme ‘Discovery’ using a variety of different public speaking techniques. The competition began with the Year 4 finalists sharing their talks based on a favourite skill or activity to a hall full of students and parents. Although a scary moment for these young finalists, they all held their own. It was Madison Charteris’s sweet singing demonstration and explanation that gained the adjudicator’s attention and first place.

The Year 5 finalists then took the stage showcasing Flash Talks. This was a new addition to our Rehu Tai Festival. Students were required to prepare a talk alongside a slide show with 12 slides and 15 seconds to speak per slide. This was a highly pressured style of speaking requiring technical skills, impactful visual imagery and the ability to articulate their thoughts clearly within the time restrictions. They shared their discoveries about the Olympics, electricity, the impact of ipads and the invention of the parachute. The Year 5’s astounded everyone with how capable they were, their voices booming confidently through the hall. It was Monica’s Qian’s informative history into the parachute that entertained and informed that gained the top spot.

 Next the competition moved to a group of Year 6 finalists who presented a series of speeches. 1st place winner, Anna Lonergan entertained everyone with why cockroaches are misunderstood. Our Year 6 Spoken word performers tackled this challenging genre with gusto, speaking expressively and with enthusiasm. Ava Revfeim’s honest observations of having ADHD hit a cord with the audience and placed 1st.

The competition continued with the senior girls in the second half of the event, starting with Year 7 finalists presenting their Persuasive Speeches, focusing on serious issues including our underfunded healthcare system and the harm of social media. Coco Poole’s speech drew on the heart of Saint Kentigern’s, sharing the joys of service, her clear message gained her 1st place. This was followed by the combined Year 7 and 8 finalists delivering their Spoken Word, a highlight of the morning. The audience were mesmerised by the raw emotional performances from all finalists. Chloe Kim-Johnson, who placed 1st, performance of “Discovering Diversity” was mature and masterful.

Before the event drew to a close, Vesa Zajmi who was representing the Girls’ School in the Remuera Rehu Tai Speech competition came on stage to share her Flash Talk on ‘Discovering History’, before the Year 8 finalists wrapped up the competition with their compelling presentations on having a positive mindset in sport, the benefits of using public transport and strange and wonderful sports. Our Year 8 winner London Leighton presented a well-balanced speech, with humour, persuasion, and skillful speaking to convince us to leave our cars at home.

This year’s adjudicator Del Costello, a NZ Speech Examiner, shared her views and observation on the finalists presentation before announcing the winners for each Year group. Finalists were judged based on the originality of ideas, speech structure and audience connection.

We would like to thank Mrs Costello for taking time to adjudicate and for sharing her valuable advice with the finalists and audience. Well done to all our winners on their impressive public speaking ability.

Winners              

Year 4 (A skill or activity)               Madison Charteris           ‘Singing’

Year 5 (Flash Talk)                           Monica Qian                      ‘The parachute discovery’

Year 6 (Speech)                                Anna Lonergan                 ‘Cockroaches are misunderstood’

Year 6 (Spoken Word)                    Ava Revfeim                      ‘ADHD and me’

Year 7 (Persuasive Speech)           Coco Poole                        ‘Discover the joys and benefits of service’

Year 7 & 8 (Spoken Word)            Chloe Kim Johnson          ‘Discover diversity’

Year 8 (Persuasive Speech)           London Leighton              ‘Why public transport’