{"id":26833,"date":"2026-10-29T14:44:50","date_gmt":"2026-10-29T03:44:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.thebuzz.net.au\/sceggs\/?post_type=article&#038;p=26833"},"modified":"2026-10-29T15:10:35","modified_gmt":"2026-10-29T04:10:35","slug":"festival-of-speech-2026","status":"publish","type":"article","link":"https:\/\/www.thebuzz.net.au\/sceggs\/article\/festival-of-speech-2026\/","title":{"rendered":"Festival of Speech 2026"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>As the jacarandas bloom, SCEGGS&#8217; public speakers and debaters prepare for the IGSA Festival of Speech and this year was no exception.\u00a0 This year&#8217;s festival was large, with debating and a range of public speaking events being held.\u00a0<\/p>\n<div id='gallery-1' class='gallery galleryid-26833 gallery-columns-5 gallery-size-medium'>\n<figure class='gallery-item link-'>\n<div class='gallery-icon'>\n<a href=\"https:\/\/d1dfwahqlx324v.cloudfront.net\/uploads\/sites\/56\/2026\/10\/debating.jpg\" data-rel=\"lightcase:1:slideshow\" title=\"\">\n<img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/d1dfwahqlx324v.cloudfront.net\/uploads\/sites\/56\/2026\/10\/debating-300x267.jpg\" alt=\"\" \/>\n<\/a><\/div>\n<div class='gallery-item__overlay d-flex justify-content-center align-items-center'><span class='fal fa-plus fa-2x'><\/span><\/div><\/figure>\n<figure class='gallery-item link-'>\n<div class='gallery-icon'>\n<a href=\"https:\/\/d1dfwahqlx324v.cloudfront.net\/uploads\/sites\/56\/2026\/10\/Josie-Grayden.jpg\" data-rel=\"lightcase:1:slideshow\" title=\"\">\n<img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/d1dfwahqlx324v.cloudfront.net\/uploads\/sites\/56\/2026\/10\/Josie-Grayden-225x300.jpg\" alt=\"\" \/>\n<\/a><\/div>\n<div class='gallery-item__overlay d-flex justify-content-center align-items-center'><span class='fal fa-plus fa-2x'><\/span><\/div><\/figure>\n<figure class='gallery-item link-'>\n<div class='gallery-icon'>\n<a href=\"https:\/\/d1dfwahqlx324v.cloudfront.net\/uploads\/sites\/56\/2026\/10\/Sarah-Yun-1.jpeg\" data-rel=\"lightcase:1:slideshow\" title=\"\">\n<img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/d1dfwahqlx324v.cloudfront.net\/uploads\/sites\/56\/2026\/10\/Sarah-Yun-1-225x300.jpeg\" alt=\"\" \/>\n<\/a><\/div>\n<div class='gallery-item__overlay d-flex justify-content-center align-items-center'><span class='fal fa-plus fa-2x'><\/span><\/div><\/figure>\n<figure class='gallery-item link-'>\n<div class='gallery-icon'>\n<a href=\"https:\/\/d1dfwahqlx324v.cloudfront.net\/uploads\/sites\/56\/2026\/10\/VIolet-close-up.jpg\" data-rel=\"lightcase:1:slideshow\" title=\"\">\n<img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/d1dfwahqlx324v.cloudfront.net\/uploads\/sites\/56\/2026\/10\/VIolet-close-up-225x300.jpg\" alt=\"\" \/>\n<\/a><\/div>\n<div class='gallery-item__overlay d-flex justify-content-center align-items-center'><span class='fal fa-plus fa-2x'><\/span><\/div><\/figure>\n<figure class='gallery-item link-'>\n<div class='gallery-icon'>\n<a href=\"https:\/\/d1dfwahqlx324v.cloudfront.net\/uploads\/sites\/56\/2026\/10\/Siena-Walsh.png\" data-rel=\"lightcase:1:slideshow\" title=\"\">\n<img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/d1dfwahqlx324v.cloudfront.net\/uploads\/sites\/56\/2026\/10\/Siena-Walsh-214x300.png\" alt=\"\" \/>\n<\/a><\/div>\n<div class='gallery-item__overlay d-flex justify-content-center align-items-center'><span class='fal fa-plus fa-2x'><\/span><\/div><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n<p>Friday night debating was hosted at Meriden and our two teams proceeded to the quarter finals on Saturday.\u00a0 The Junior Team made it to the Quarter-Final where they were unfortunately knocked out, but spoke excellently.\u00a0 The Senior Debaters were runners-up in the Grand Final, an outstanding result!<\/p>\n<p>Saturday\u2019s events were held at PLC Sydney. Our Junior speakers (Years 7-9) were:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Charlotte Randall (Year 8) &#8211; Soapbox<\/li>\n<li>Violet Pendlebury-Simmons (Year 7) &#8211; Poetry<\/li>\n<li>Siena Walsh (Year 8) &#8211; Public Speaking<\/li>\n<li>Sarah Yun (Year 9) &#8211; Reading<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>The Junior Team won their division, placing first overall in each section listed above. Individual results were:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"font-size: 1.15rem;letter-spacing: 0px\">Siena Walsh &#8211; third<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-size: 1.15rem;letter-spacing: 0px\">Sarah Yun &#8211; second<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-size: 1.15rem;letter-spacing: 0px\">Violet Pendlebury-Simmons &#8211; first<\/span><span style=\"font-size: 1.15rem;letter-spacing: 0px\">. <\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Congratulations to our Junior Speakers &#8211; we very proud of you all!<\/p>\n<p>Over in the Senior Division we were represented by:<\/p>\n<p><strong>Individual Sections<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Jessica Gallie (Year 11) &#8211; Public Speaking<\/li>\n<li>Josie Grayden (Year 11)\u00a0 &#8211; Soapbox<\/li>\n<li>Olivia Phillips (Year 10) &#8211; Poetry<\/li>\n<li>Isha Singh (Year 11) &#8211; Reading\u00a0<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Religious and Ethical Questions Team<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Ava Dua (Year 11)<\/li>\n<li>Giulia Peroni (Year 11)<\/li>\n<li>Harriet Christie (Year 11)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Current Affairs Team<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Isobel Weston (Year 10)<\/li>\n<li>Josephine Hatherall (Year 10)<\/li>\n<li>Scarlett White (Year 11)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Jessica Gallie and Josie Grayden both placed third in their divisions.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Overall, SCEGGS came a close second to Abbotsleigh.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>The Festival of Speech is a team event and every speaker, whether they place or not, contributes to the overall result so thank you and congratulations to all.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>A huge thank you to Dynielle Whitney, Suvini Kottegoda and the debating coaches for preparing and organising the Debaters and Religious and Ethical Questions teams.\u00a0 It is a huge amount of work and without everyone coming together, we wouldn\u2019t be able to do it.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><strong>Elizabeth Walsh<\/strong><br \/>\n<strong>Speech and Public Speaking<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>As the jacarandas bloom, SCEGGS&#8217; public speakers and debaters prepare for the IGSA Festival of Speech and this year was no exception.\u00a0 This year&#8217;s festival was large, with debating and a range of public speaking events being held.\u00a0 Friday night debating was hosted at Meriden and our two teams proceeded to the quarter finals on [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":26836,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","article_category":[],"article_tag":[45],"class_list":["post-26833","article","type-article","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","article_tag-co-curricular"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thebuzz.net.au\/sceggs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/article\/26833","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thebuzz.net.au\/sceggs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/article"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thebuzz.net.au\/sceggs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/article"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thebuzz.net.au\/sceggs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=26833"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thebuzz.net.au\/sceggs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/26836"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thebuzz.net.au\/sceggs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=26833"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"article_category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thebuzz.net.au\/sceggs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/article_category?post=26833"},{"taxonomy":"article_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thebuzz.net.au\/sceggs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/article_tag?post=26833"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}