The fourth and last heat of the Churchill Public Speaking Competition organised by the Colchester & Essex branch was held at Colchester County High School for Girls on 14 January 2020. Five teams competed in the event, representing four schools from the town.
The adjudicators, former Brightlingsea mayor, Vivien Chapman, artist, lecturer and writer, Christopher Meigh-Andrews and university lecturer, Jane Weller, praised all the participants for their performances before announcing the prize-winners, who each received a Churchill crown from organiser, James Scruby.
The winning team was Colchester Royal Grammar School Team 2, comprising chair, Ibraheem Sand, questioner, Harnji Singh and speaker, Miles Black, who deliberated on the plight of the Amazon rainforest. The hosts finished as runners-up, their team being made up of Diti Gupta, Eleanor Carmel and Nikita Karri. Both teams progressed to the branch final.
Diti was nominated as best chair and Harnji as best questioner. The award for best speaker went to Emmanuel Togoh of Colchester Royal Grammar School Team 1, who pondered negativity against introversion.
St Mary’s School also challenged at the event. Every participant received a certificate for having taken part, presented by branch chair, Brian Cooke.
