Speak Out Challenge Finals 2025

Speak Out Challenge: 2025

Jack Petchey’s Speak Out challenge commences with an all-day, interactive workshop. Throughout this, they are led by an expert through a series of activities and exercises all designed to aid their confidence in public speaking, such as refining the use of body language, and the ability to carry their voices across a space. During this time, they also craft a speech of their choosing from scratch and at the end of the day, deliver it to the group, using all of the skills they have learnt – which is no mean feat!

After their speeches were presented, the most successful students progressed to an assembly final, where their speeches were delivered to a larger crowd and judged by a panel of teachers and student judges based on the content of the speech, its delivery, its structure, and its overall inspiring message. Despite some stiff competition, Viola L and Isabelle S emerged the victors of this round.

Following this, Viola and Isabelle completed some rigorous lunchtime training to prepare for the regional final, where they were due to face the winners from other schools across Sussex on 26^th June. On the day, they participated in a workshop with the other finalists, ensuring they made some final tweaks and adjustments to enable them to present their speech confidently and with passion.

Year 11 student Isla H, who has just completed her GCSEs, hosted the evening’s event having won the Speak Out challenge last year. She was warm and had excellent stage presence, supporting all participants as they made their way to the stage. Her reassuring presence will have made it easier for all the finalists to address the audience.

The focus, however, turned to this year’s finalists. Viola and Isabelle had just three minutes to perform their speech to a panel of expert judges. First up was Viola, presenting on ‘The Real You’. It was a stunning opening to the evening’s presentations, with a fervent argument about the need to accept ourselves as we are, without feeling the need to change. Stepping up further through the evening’s finalists, Izzy presented on ‘The Gift of Time’. It was an inspiring speech, encouraging the audience to be more introspective about appreciating the time we have, rather than losing ourselves in endless scrolling or bemoaning our lack of time. Both of Chailey’s finalists were outstanding: confident, engaging, and they kept the audience rapt as they listened. The standard of the competition was high, from speeches about why ‘Life is Better with Pretzels’ and ‘Finger paints to fake paints’ is a result of AI, to some more serious messages around tolerance and prejudice in society in speeches entitled ‘For a Brown Girl’ and ‘Why do we hate?’.

The competition was fierce; all the speakers had met the judging criteria spectacularly. Brighton’s mayor, Councillor Amanda Grimshaw BEM, attended the evening and commented that Isabelle’s performance was ‘funny and invited us to reconsider our use of time’ and that she ‘expects to see Viola in the Houses of Parliament in future years’. High praise indeed for the quality of our students’ speeches.

The mayor went on to reflect that students who can speak confidently and communicate clearly are those who can create advantages for themselves throughout their lives. Even where naturally students may not feel they can do these things, to speak is a learnt skill and is something that everyone should have the opportunity to learn and excel at. We are thrilled that at Chailey, we strive to achieve this throughout the curriculum and in the extra-curricular opportunities we provide.

Following what must have been a very challenging decision, the results were finally in. There could only be one winner of the evening to receive a trophy and this was awarded to Nyra, a student from West Sussex speaking about the impact of phrases such as ‘for a brown girl’ and the stigma attached to skin colour. She was a worthy winner, but we celebrate and commend the outstanding performances of Viola and Izzy and thank their families for coming to attend the evening. Well done!