This week we held the annual senior public speaking competition at Ridley.  As a longstanding tradition at Ridley, the public speaking awards are much sought after prizes. There are three categories for the public speaking contest: Junior, English as a Second Language and Senior.  Thank you to David Willmot and Greg Thompson from the Class of 1968, and teacher Mr. Spencer Martin for judging the public speaking competition as well as Tim Griffin ’68 for his support. These members of the class of 1968 along with Chris Carter ’68 and Brian Iggulden ’67 have been instrumental in creating a fund to promote the Speaking Arts named after ‘W. Darcy McKeough ’51.’ Please view the speeches below:

Our Senior division Dr. W.H. Merritt Memorial Prize Winner is Kaliene Jackson:

The Senior division runner-up Honorable Mr. Justice A. Courtney Kingstone Award winner was Aidan Robertson:

The ESL Thomas Kwok Award winner was David Xiaochen Xue. This is a very special award started by an Old Ridleian, Thomas Kwok ’10 who was an English as a Second Language student.  Thomas competed in the public speaking competition when he was a student and thought there should be a special category for ESL students who had the courage to compete.

The Junior Division Family Guild Award winner was Monica Morcous: