About bayspeak
What is BAYSPEAK?
BAYSPEAK is a youth public speaking competition for secondary school students around the Bayside region of Victoria run by the Rotary Clubs of Brighton, Brighton North and Sandringham
It is designed for secondary school students who:
- Want to improve their public speaking skills;
- Want to test their public speaking ability against students from other schools in the Bayside area;
- Want to win cash prizes for the best speakers.
It is based on a proven model developed by the Rotary Club of Hoppers Crossing called WYNSPEAK.
WYNSPEAK has been running for over 20 years, and over 1,000 secondary school aged students, representing some 38 secondary schools in the Western Region of Melbourne, have participated in, and benefitted from this competition since its inception.
The competition covers two levels:
- a junior section for students of school age corresponding to years 7-9, and
- a senior section for students of school age corresponding to years 10-12.
Each school can enter two students in the junior section and two students in the senior section of the competition.
Why is public speaking important?
BAYSPEAK has been developed to provide students with an opportunity to practice and test their public speaking skills and gain confidence from public speaking before a live audience, a lifelong skill that can take be taken into future social and working lives.
Public speaking is one of the most important and often most dreaded forms of communication. Students with good public speaking ability can benefit through:
- Great overall communication skills, as public speaking involves verbal as well as non-verbal communication.
- Good public speaking skills help students stand out in a group.
- Increased self-confidence. Public speaking is often feared, but by speaking publicly on a regular basis, this difficult skill can be mastered.
- Being a good speaker is helpful to being an inspirational leader.