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Youth Speaks 2013

21-05-13

Every year the
Rotary Club hold their national Youth Speaks competition in which teams
composed of young students take part in preparing and delivering a formal
speech on a subject chosen by themselves.

This year St
David’s College entered two teams comprising of three students per team. Each
of the three members had different roles they were judged in – main speaker,
chair person and a speaker to conduct the vote of thanks. Oliver Goldring,
Julius Muyombya and Nick Roques formed one team
whilst Poppy Heneghan-Pickard, Tabitha Sylvester-Kilroy and Cloela Bolt were
members of another.

Despite
a strong performance from the boys and many positive comments from the Rotary
Club and the judges the boys didn’t progress any further than the local heats.
The Girls made it to the district final but narrowly missed out on a place competing
in the Regional Final.

On
the 14^th both teams were invited by the Llandudno Rotary Club to
attend a club dinner where they received their certificates for taking part in
the national competition. St David’s enters the Youth Speaks competition every
year and next year’s competitors can be sure to carry on the high standards set
by this year’s students.

Pupils have the right chemistry!

17-05-13

On Tuesday 14^th
May 4 budding chemists from St David’s took part in the Salters’ festival of
chemistry at Liverpool John Moore University. The team were selected from Year 8 and consisted of Sam Holt, Alex
Rogowski, Matthew Gillett and Kiani Geldard. The main focus of the morning was
"The Salters' Challenge". This was a competitive, practical activity,
for which no advance preparation was required. The team was asked to solve a
murder using some chemical tests. The horrible headmaster had been killed and they
had to identify white powders found on the body and on the suspects to find out
who was the culprit. Watch out Mr Hay! In the afternoon students tackled "The
University Challenge", which was a practical investigation chosen by the
University. They had to change the timing of a chemical reaction so that it
changed colour at exactly 30 seconds. The team managed this really well and got
the reaction to change at 29 seconds. Unfortunately, when the judges were
watching it changed at 24! The team worked really well as a team,
demonstrated good skills but most of all thoroughly enjoyed themselves.
Unfortunately on this occasion they didn't pick up a prize, but they definitely
took something away from the day and learned some good Chemistry. Well done!