Loreto students have won high praise from the Rotary Club for their debating skills in a national competition.

 

Youth Speaks is a prestigious contest run by the Rotary Club and the Manchester Breakfast Rotary Club have chosen the winning Loreto team to go onto the District finals.

 

 In teams of three the students spoke about a wide range of topics ranging from: “Is football just an overpaid hobby?” to “Should the Santa ‘Clause’ be written out of Christmas?” Other thorny subjects discussed included taxation and the Arab spring uprisings.

 

 The winning team were Thomas Almond, Cailin Burney and Jenny Bishop; who spoke on the subject “Facebook – Friend or foe?” They are now preparing for the District Finals later this month.

 

The Rotary judges enjoyed all the presentations and commended the speakers on the high standards and the passion and enthusiasm shown by the speakers. 

Andrew Goodliffe, President of the local Manchester Breakfast Rotary Club who organised the competition said: "Our experienced judging panel were very, very impressed. All of the teams would have been worthy entries in our District Youth Speaks competition. For a first time venture it was a tremendous event and a tribute to everyone involved."

 

Each team had to deliver a presentation consisting of a talk and a vote of thanks, with the proceedings managed by a chairperson. Last year thousands of young people took the Youth Speaks challenge which culminated in a national final.