Speakers Trust “Speak Out” Challenge Award

Crystal Donaldson, year 10, won second place in the regional final of a coveted public speaking award.

Crystal Donaldson wrote an inspiring speech about education for the Speakers Trust “Speak Out” Challenge – Midlands Regional Final. She competed against 14 finalists selected after workshops in 17 schools across the West Midlands.

Judges praised her for her emotive and engaging perspective of the challenges students face during their GCSEs.

‘The “Speak Out” Challenge! is the world’s largest youth speaking event, involving over 22,000 students across Birmingham, Bradford, Doncaster, London and Manchester. Aim Higher West Midlands has funded the work in Birmingham and the Black Country and the programme is designed and delivered by Speakers Trust, the UK’s leading communication skills training charity. Over 1,300 Year 10 students in state secondary schools across the West Midlands received a one-day public speaking and communications training workshop. During the course, students were given the skills and the confidence to develop and deliver a speech on a topic that is important to them.’

Jo Bowers from Birmingham City University, is senior officer of the National Collaborative Outreach Programme – a scheme to encourage underprivileged young people to pursue university. She said: “Crystal Donaldson’s speech was extraordinarily motivational regarding the power of education and I commented at the time that her speech should have been recorded and sent out to every school in the country. “She won second place in a hotly contested final and should be extremely proud of herself.”

Crystal said: “Some people have to walk three hours to get to school every day and we don’t realise how precious education is.

“Education can’t be stolen and is the key to success. Education is knowledge and knowledge is power.”

Crystal’s Speech can be seen below: