This year’s Rostrum Voice of Youth Competition was highly successful with a record number of 14 girls participating in both the Junior and Senior Divisions. This competition is highly regarded with heats in each state. It challenges students to give an eight minute speech in the Senior Division and a six minute speech in the Junior Division. The girls worked tirelessly with staff and the Senior mentors in the lead up to this competition, and the results on Sunday 26 May did not disappoint.

Some of the topics that students could choose from were: Genuine Treasure; Ahead of the Curve; the Generosity of Strangers; and A Modern Epidemic, forcing students to think outside the box and create original ideas that would capture the audience’s attention.

Fourteen St Catherine’s students participated in the Rostrum Voice of Youth Competition on Sunday 26 May.

Participants in the Junior Division of the competition were: Madeleine Farrer (Year 9), Olivia Bogdan (Year 9), Ciara Jenkins (Year 9), Angela Yu (Year 9), Jemima Wilcox (Year 8) and Keyue (Karen) Deng (Year 8). In the Senior Division, participants were: previous semi-finalist Flynn O’Brien (Year 12), Georgina Cottrill (Year 12), Sophie Turnbull (Year 12), Sophie Hogan (Year 11), Amelia Sun (Year 11), Fleur Anstee (Year 10), Lucy Campbell (Year 10) and Jessica Yang (Year 10). Having participated in this competition last year, several of our students were intimately aware of the preferred style of content and presentation endorsed by the adjudicators, as each competition is slightly different in its demands.

Fleur Anstee (Year 10), Amelia Sun (Year 11), Georgina Cottrill (Year 12) and Angela Yu (Year 9) were named semi-finalists in the 2019 Rostrum Voice of Youth Competition.

We are proud that three girls proceeded to the Semi-Finals: Amelia Sun, Fleur Anstee and Angela Yu, and were able to share their insightful speeches with a select audience on the day. These girls then had the opportunity to give their eight minute speeches again to a larger audience, followed by an impromptu speech of three minutes, for which they were given only 15 minutes to prepare. Although it can be daunting, these three girls represented St Catherine’s spectacularly. Angela Yu also presented her speech on the topic of ‘Passion for Fashion’ at the Senior School Assembly, allowing us to hear how the passion developed by the Western population for fast fashion leads to economic exploitation of those who are less fortunate. We would also like to congratulate our School Co-Captain, Georgina Cottrill, who won her heat but was unable to proceed to the next round on the day.

We also thank all the teachers involved for their advice and guidance in the lead up to the day, and on the day: Mr Paul Gilby, Miss Elizabeth Ryan, Ms Merran O’Connor and Ms Mary-Anne Keratiotis.