Winter 11 Featuring: The Buckingham Palace Awards Ceremony ...

DISCOVER YOUR VOICE
The first ‘Discover Your Voice’ mentor training session of
the year was recently held at ESU Dartmouth House. We
now have a pool of over 80 trained mentors who assist us in
delivering our primary and secondary school training
programmes.
Last year, we worked with more than 100 schools
throughout England and Wales, teaching public speaking
and debating skills for beginners and intermediates. Our
aim is to help develop skills in cooperation with
programmes already up and running in schools, but also to
establish debating where there has not been a tradition in
place. ‘Discover Your Voice’ additionally forms the
backbone of our international training programme, and we
have been working to develop a version of the texts which
are available for use overseas. Teachers and students alike
gain a lot from the programme. They build their skills using
our class resources, follow up materials, engagement with
the ESU competitions and the day they spend with our
mentors.
ESU Speech and Debate offers workshops to schools at cost
price when paid for directly by branches. If you think there
may be a school in your area which would be interested, or
if you would like more details, please get in touch with
Steven Nolan at discoveryourvoice@esu.org
THE JOHN SMITH MEMORIAL MACE
To date, more than 200 teams have entered the John Smith
Memorial Mace. As a result, this year’s championships look
set to be the biggest in the competition’s 58 year history.
Competitions are held in Ireland, Wales, Scotland and
England, with the national champions competing against
each other to select the international mace champion. This
year’s international final will be held at ESU Dartmouth
House on 29 April.
The John Smith Memorial Mace is one of the most
prestigious debating competitions in the world, with former
winners including the late Donald Dewar, Charles Kennedy,
Bob Marshall-Andrews, The Rt Hon the Lord Hunt of
Wirral, Professor Anthony Clare, and the late Labour
leader, John Smith, in whose honour the competition was
re-named in 1995.
The ESU is grateful to Baillie Gifford for its support of the
competition. The firm’s dedication to spreading debating
and speaking skills at university has enabled us to run
dozens of training workshops across the UK and Ireland,
including some with universities which have no tradition of
debating. This work is being supplemented with the
development of online training resources, so those
interested are able to get access to expert ESU training,
regardless of their location.
University students involved in the John Smith Memorial
Mace competitions are also vital to the operation of our
primary and secondary school programmes. They form the
majority of the mentors whom we instruct to deliver
‘Discover Your Voice’ training; they judge public speaking
and schools mace rounds, and form an active and engaged
alumni network.
DIALOGUE 15