{"id":47807,"date":"2026-10-30T16:04:07","date_gmt":"2026-10-30T05:04:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.thebuzz.net.au\/mlc\/?post_type=article&p=47807"},"modified":"2026-10-30T16:04:07","modified_gmt":"2026-10-30T05:04:07","slug":"festival-of-speech-success-for-2026","status":"publish","type":"article","link":"https:\/\/www.thebuzz.net.au\/mlc\/article\/festival-of-speech-success-for-2026\/","title":{"rendered":"Festival of Speech Success for 2026"},"content":{"rendered":"

This year\u2019s IGSA Festival of Speech was held over two days and included the Debating Tournament.<\/p>\n

Debating took place at Meriden on Friday evening. Our Senior team (Meena Kanthathas, Joanne Chen, Veronica Pan<\/strong> and Alana Mellare <\/strong>\u2013 Year 11) won one debate and lost another, and unfortunately did not progress to the finals. Our Junior team (Audrey Buck, Lauren Liu<\/strong> and Bonnie Li <\/strong>\u2013 Year 9) also won one debate and lost one, progressing to the quarterfinals.<\/p>\n

The main Festival events were held last Saturday at PLC Sydney. MLC School was represented by a team of 17 students across 10 events. The Festival is highly competitive, with approximately 25 participants in each event, and all require extensive preparation.<\/p>\n

Our Current Affairs team (Mia Waterhouse, Katherine Woo<\/strong>\u00a0and Melisande Pitman <\/strong>\u2013 Year 10) performed strongly in the heats, progressing to the six-team final in the afternoon. The event requires a 15-minute panel discussion amongst the team members of a topical news issue, and for the finals, an international matter. They delivered an excellent performance and achieved second place overall, out of 21 teams.<\/p>\n

The Religious and Ethical Questions team (Yerina Kang, Lindsay Zeng<\/strong> and Rebecca Ho-Bui <\/strong>\u2013\u00a0Year 11) were questioned by a panel of three judges for 10 minutes with five questions relating to an article they had studied. Competing first among 21 teams, they performed exceptionally well and achieved fifth place overall.<\/p>\n

The individual events were also highly challenging and required considerable preparation and practice. Students from our Oratory class participated in the Public Speaking sections of the Festival.<\/p>\n

In the Soapbox event, speakers addressed an audience outdoors using a microphone and presented on a topic of personal significance. Sophia Cao <\/strong>(Year 7), delivered an engaging performance in her first Festival event and achieved fifth place among 24 competitors. Nina Hespe<\/strong> (Year 10), also gave a polished performance as our Senior Soapbox representative.<\/p>\n

The Public Speaking event required a formal prepared speech delivered indoors, followed by a shorter impromptu speech. In the Junior section, Mariella Tsolis<\/strong> (Year 7), gave a composed performance in both components during her first Festival appearance. In the Senior section, Caydence Sumantri<\/strong> (Year 10), performed confidently among a talented field of 20 students.<\/p>\n

Overall, MLC School continued its strong performance record, achieving fifth place in both the Junior and Senior sections and fifth place overall. MLC School was the only school to place among the top five in all three categories.<\/p>\n

We thank all the students who represented MLC School with distinction and who demonstrated an excellent spirit of camaraderie with the competitors from the other girls\u2019 schools.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/div>\n