Students from five Bristol Education Partnership (BEP) schools – Cotham, Bristol Free School, St Brendan’s Sixth Form College, Clifton College, and Clifton High – participated in an inspiring and uplifting afternoon in the MacKinnon Theatre at BGS on Wednesday 10 October. All BEP Youth Talks finalists had prepared for this TEDx-style event for some months with support from Ignited Presenting.
The aim of this project was to encourage and support young people from across the BEP to develop their voices, their message and to provide a stage to help them become powerful speakers. Students from participating schools took part in workshops with Ignited Presenting, with each school hosting its own event to select the student who would go forward to the final.
BEP Youth Talks is open to pupils in Year 9 upwards and there are plans to expand the project next year to include a larger number of BEP schools, including BGS. The event helps promote public speaking and presentation skills, as well as inspiring students about the importance of building their oracy skills. We were delighted to be able to host this grand final in our MacKinnon Theatre and to be able to hear such a wide-range of interesting and inspiring speeches from young people from across Bristol.