On Tuesday the 8^{th of} April we held our 28th annual Primary Schools Public Speaking Competition. The students have to make a speech for not more than five minutes on a given subject in front of teachers, parents, friends and of course the judges. This year the subject was ‘Sometime’.

There were 9 entrants from our local primary schools, and as in previous years, we were overwhelmed by the quality of the speeches given by the young 10 and 11 year old students. We are always very proud of the students in this competition in the way they support and congratulate each other, and this year was no exception. Some of the students have never met before, yet they quickly form a supportive group and are always a credit to their parents and teachers.

 The judges Geoff Carr, Paddy Carr and Ed Perrins faced an almost impossible task of choosing a winner and two runners up, but choose they had to and in 1^st place was Evia Pearson, in 2^nd place was Sophia Olivieri  and in 3^rd place was Isabella Ingles. Special credit should be given to all of the students, Emily Pearson, Suzie Macfarlane, Winnie Parks, Buddy Pritchard, Emmie Boysce and Henrietta Ingram-Dodd who entertained and informed the audience and made the evening a real success.

The speeches covered a range of topics around the given subject, a future career in broadcasting; the things that grandparents do; putting things off; looking forward to a brighter future; an ancient myth; aquatic life; a possible cure for cancer; a heartfelt poem about life and our best friends, dogs.

 All of the young entrants surely have bright futures ahead of them and on that note, we would love to hear from anyone who previously entered the competition over its 28 years to find out where they are and what they are doing now. 

In addition to our annual Junior Youth Speaks competition we also organise a Young Photographer competition, at Chipping Campden Academy and the Young Musician event.