Congratulations to the Aldenham team who, following a tough first heat this week, have qualified for the Hertfordshire Branch Final of the English-Speaking Union Public Speaking Competition. This is the largest public speaking competition in the UK with over 400 teams entering each year. They were up against St Clement Danes, Haileybury, Wycombe Abbey and Aylesbury Grammar School.

The standard of speeches was outstanding and, despite being newcomers to the competition this year, Nicholas Davis (15), Alex Knight (14) and Dhyaan Shah (15) all performed fantastically in their individual roles. Nick spoke passionately on the subject of 'Can the flame of political extremism ever be extinguished?', gaining him the highest score for the ‘Speaker’ role out of all seven competing teams. Alex and Dhyaan took the role of Chairperson and Questioner respectively, and they had to host, summarise and question a speaker from an opposing school. Their speaker was from Wycombe Abbey who spoke on the topic 'We have to talk about liberating minds as well as liberating society'.

The brilliant feedback they received from the judges should serve them well on their journey towards the National Final.

Many thanks to all involved, we will follow their progress with great interest. The final will take place at Haberdashers’ Boys on 1^st February.