Don’t you like to “Have Your Say!”?

 

Over 500 students in Essex and Suffolk schools had their say when they participated in the “Have Your Say” competition in 2016. This event, which has been run by the Essex and East Anglian Branch for 29 years, offers students in Years 7 to 9 an opportunity to participate in a speaking competition, where they memorise a dialogue and add their own four lines to create their own ending to that dialogue.  In Year 10 students have to be even more creative, as they are set a subject for their dialogue and are given ten phrases, which they must include.  Three preliminary rounds are held around Essex and Suffolk and in May the final takes place, when students again perform their dialogues, but are also required to read an unseen dialogue.

In the 2016 final over 200 students gathered in the hall at Thomas Lord Audley School in Colchester to compete against each other.  Students are assessed on their accuracy and their pronunciation and the winners in each year group for each language were presented with trophies to mark their success.  It was pleasing to see a wide number of schools achieving success in the three languages of French, German and Spanish.

Next year will see the 30th year of the competition, which will be launched in December 2016.  If you are a teacher in a secondary school in Essex or Suffolk and are not aware of the competition please get in touch with the committee: [email protected], as we would love you to join us to celebrate the 30th anniversary of “Have Your Say!”

Click here to see the results.