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

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BRANCHES Norwich and Norfolk Our AGM was held in July. The Chairman began by asking for a minute’s silence for our late President, Bill Wuest, who passed away last November. After the usual business the election of officers took place. The committee was re-elected unanimously to stand ‘en bloc’ for a further year. We welcomed Melvyn Roffe, Headmaster of Wymondham College, who was elected as our new President. He delivered a short speech in which he highlighted that he had been an ESU member for many years and was delighted to accept the position. Our usual visit to the Cromer Pier Show took place in early September. Once again we had a fish and chip lunch prior to the show! Our new year began in September with a talk by Silvia Dowrick entitled ‘Bangles and Booze’. Silvia makes and sells magnetic jewellery and she explained how magnets in jewellery can be beneficial for aches and pains. The jewellery was lovely and many members purchased some of her items. Her husband runs the ‘Booze’ side of things and she brought along some of the homemade liqueurs made by him. Of course we had to sample them! In October, Stephen Ashworth from the Chemistry Department at the University of East Anglia gave us a talk entitled ‘Lies, Damned Lies and Statistics’. It was an interesting and entertaining talk, involving us all in experiments to illustrate the fundamentals of statistics. Why didn’t we have this topic taught in this fun way when we were at school Ouse Valley The pioneering competitors and their teachers In 2010, as in previous years, we attracted only a handful of secondary schools to our public speaking heats, and I wondered again whether the ESU should be introducing these activities at an earlier age to create a better foundation for the future. The next day I retrieved from my files a leaflet on the ESU ‘Discover Your Voice’ scheme for the primary sector, and a project to introduce public speaking to Year 4 (8/9 year old) students in Bedford began to take shape. The early steps in the process were reported in previous copies of dialogue (June 2010 pp36/37 and March 2011 pp46/47). We arranged training days (delivered by the ESU Speech and Debate department) for the 13 interested schools, four or so at a time. In addition some branch members worked alongside the mentors. The teachers also received training with the intention that each teacher would subsequently cascade these skills to their year 4 groups during the 2011 Spring Term, and work towards an inter-school competition the following summer. As follow-up support, all schools were issued with copies of the Key Stage 2 resource book from the ESU’s ‘Discover Your Voice’ teaching materials, plus sets of our own pre-prepared teacher help sheets based on popular activities, with writing frames to guide the children. An e-mail help-line was also established. The competition day took place at Bedford School in June 2011 and ten schools made it through to the competition. Schools were allocated their topic beforehand from six preferences previously selected from a long list. In contrast to the secondary competition, teams were called forward in pairs (pairings and topics were known beforehand); to encourage teamwork all participants could prompt their own members if they were stuck. Each questioner asked at least four questions of the other team on the topic. No time limits were imposed, as previous experience suggested that the complete sequence for a school was unlikely to exceed five minutes. Three experienced ESU members (all former teachers) acted as judges, and our Regional Officer was conscripted to ask an extra question of each team on behalf of the ESU at the end of every presentation. DIALOGUE 46
The children rose to the challenge with great aplomb. After a slightly nervous start, confidence grew, notes were set aside, speeches flowed and questions became more demanding. There were some sparkling presentations by speakers, examples of very good chairmanship, and many challenging questions posed. It was really quite inspirational. All present – children, teachers and ESU members - judged it a great success, and so we are repeating the project in 2011-2012. Over 500 children were involved in public speaking activities for a whole term on this first occasion – not a bad start I am sure you will agree. A short DVD of edited highlights from the competition can be viewed on the Ouse Valley web pages Tony Wood, Chairman, Ouse Valley branch Suffolk enjoyed the event at Alexander’s home in Barton Mills. Alexander, with the able help of Leo Hamilton-Hoole, worked very hard to make it a day we would remember – the sun shone, (another sign of Alexander’s genius perhaps!) and, as usual, the sound of the band playing jazz wafted over the superb Italianate garden while we sipped champagne, ate delicious canapés and engaged in a huge range of conversations, greeting old friends and meeting new ones. This year, Alexander added an extra magic ingredient to his Garden Party recipe – the guest of honour was Peter Kyle, the ESU’s new Director- General. Peter’s presence was welcomed by us all. With Peter and our Chairman, Dame Mary, we feel sure that the organisation is in good hands and we look ahead with confidence. MIDLANDS REGION Gloucestershire Warm sunshine and the sound of live jazz greeted everyone as they arrived at our annual summer garden party at the Dumbleton, Gloucestershire, home of Committee Member, Jenny Hunter. As a branch we sponsor the Gloucestershire Youth Jazz Band and, as always, we were not disappointed with the performance of eight members of the band. Their chosen professions vary from doctors, dentists, lawyers, teachers and musicians, and their musical ability and joy of entertaining never ceases to give us great pleasure. Members from the Worcestershire and Birmingham branches joined us for the party, together with Sonia Chance, the Regional Chairman. Austin Millington, our Chairman, thanked Jenny for once again welcoming us into her home and garden. We have been to her home several times for events and we all appreciate her warm hospitality. Any young person receiving a branch scholarship should have their main home in Gloucestershire, and we encourage local young people to contact us about scholarships. Garden Party guests Invitations to our annual garden party hosted by our region President are eagerly awaited; Alexander Finnis is renowned as an excellent host. This year’s event on 7 August was, as always, arranged to perfection. One hundred and forty five guests, representing all eight of the branches in the Region, plus their guests, DIALOGUE 47
Page 1 and 2: A quarterly publication from The En
Page 3 and 4: CREDITS Managing Editors Annette Fi
Page 5 and 6: At HRH Prince Philip’s final even
Page 7 and 8: FEATURES - Inside A selection of ev
Page 9 and 10: 1. 1. Özge Karaoglu Ergen, winner
Page 11 and 12: SSE UPDATE AND THANKSGIVING DINNER
Page 13 and 14: PROGRAMMES - Inside We bring you ne
Page 15 and 16: DISCOVER YOUR VOICE The first ‘Di
Page 17 and 18: DEBATE ACADEMY The ESU’s 11th ann
Page 19 and 20: SCHOOLS MACE AND PUBLIC SPEAKING CO
Page 21 and 22: TEA ON THE TERRACE Lord Hunt with g
Page 23 and 24: LAUNCH OF ESU ICELAND AND AN ICELAN
Page 25 and 26: DIPLOMAT RECEPTION The ESU enjoys a
Page 27 and 28: ESUJ Tournament The next morning sa
Page 29 and 30: ALUMNI - Inside A selection of pers
Page 31 and 32: IPSC 30th ANNIVERSARY DINNER The En
Page 33 and 34: LINDEMANN REUNION In October, we st
Page 35 and 36: IF IT WASN’T FOR THE ESU . . . !
Page 37 and 38: ‘I would not have rubbed shoulder
Page 39 and 40: ‘I would never have graduated fro
Page 41 and 42: ‘I wouldn’t have met Barack Oba
Page 43 and 44: BRANCHES - Inside The UK branches o
Page 45: BRANCHES Colchester and Northeast E
Page 49 and 50: NORTH WEST REGION Liverpool and Mer
Page 51 and 52: West Sussex In June, a dozen member
Page 53 and 54: he covered both history and culture
Page 55 and 56: REGIONAL DIARY EAST REGION MIDLANDS
Page 57 and 58: January - May 2012 JANUARY Welcome
Page 59 and 60: FEBRUARY MARCH Wednesday 22 Februar
Page 61 and 62: MAY Saturday 12 May Public Speaking
Page 63 and 64: ANNUAL FUNDRAISING APPEAL - PUBLIC

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

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