The winner of the 2010 IHMS Oratorical Contest - Mitzi G.

Public speaking is an important social skill that can be acquired through practice at an early age. The more opportunities a student has to develop this skill, the more comfortable and proficient they will be at a later age. To help facilitate this process, every year in May the grade 6 to 8 students of IHMS are asked to deliver a 2-3 minute speech to their classmates on a preselected topic.

The preselected topics for each grade were as follows:

• Grade 6: “My Interests / Activities”
• Grade 7: “Why I Enjoy Attending IHMS”
• Grade 8: “What I Plan To Do In The Future”

The nine contestants lined up in their speaking order

After each student delivers their speech to the rest of the class, they’re given a mark by their teacher, and the six best speakers are selected as semi-finalists. Next, they recite their speeches for a second time to a pair of judges (the judges are usually teachers in the school), and the six are reduced down to 3 finalists. These finalists become contestants in the Oratorical Contest for their grade.
 
The Oratorical Contest is sponsored by an organization called the Fidelity Club which has been providing prize money for the past 16 years. The prizes are:

1st place - $100 scholarship and a trophy 2nd place - $ 75 scholarship 3rd place - $ 50 scholarship

This year, the 16th Annual Oratorical Contest was held on Tuesday, May 18th in the school gym. The finalists for each grade were:

• Grade 6: Spencer K., Jessica M., Lukas S.
• Grade 7: Jacob K., Zenia M., Cassandra Z.
• Grade 8: Larissa C., Olena C., Mitzi G.

The grade 6 contestants: Spencer K., Jessica M., and Lukas S.

The grade 7 contestants: Jacob K., Zenia M., and Cassandra Z.

The grade 8 contestants: Larissa C., Olena C., Mitzi G.

These nine finalists were selected the previous week in order to give them enough time to memorize and perfect their speeches. They practised in front of each other and were given constructive advice and feedback by the supervising teachers. This helped to improve the overall quality of their speeches.

The judges for this year’s Oratorical Contest were:

• Mr. I. Fil, the school’s custodian
• Mrs. Wittevrongel. the school’s grade 5 teacher
• Mrs. Laird, the school’s grade 4&5 French teacher

The judges for this year's Oratorical Contest

Each of the nine contestants presented their speech in the school gym in front of the grade 5-8 students and the three judges. A few parents also came to watch.

Parents watching the contest at the back of the gym

The contest began just after 9:00 a.m., and by 9:45 a.m., it was over. The students were dismissed back to their classes to allow the judges time to make the difficult decision of selecting the top three contestants. Everyone reconvened in the gym at 10:30 a.m. to hear the final results as announced by Mr. Picklyk. One of the judges, Mrs. Laird, spoke briefly about the high quality of this year’s competition and then presented the first, second, and third place certificates to the respective winners:

• 1st place - Mitzi G.
• 2nd place - Jakob K.
• 3rd place - Spencer K.

Mrs. Laird presenting the first place certificate to Mitzi

Mrs. Laird presenting the second place certificate to Jakob

Mrs. Laird presenting the third place certificate to Spencer

Congratulations to all nine contestants for a job well done.