On Saturday 11th February, our senior public speaking team, comprising Lucy Moran, Rowan Ross and Elisha Cassidy, represented Belfast Model School for Girls at the Northern Ireland Final of the Business and Professional Women’s Public Speaking Competition.

Our students were up against Lurgan College, Wallace High School, Ballymena Academy, St Mary’s Grammar School, and Dromore High School.
There were a variety of topics on display, including men’s mental health, cancel culture, young people in democracy, saving the environment, women’s rights and our girls’ topic, why democracy needs to die.

The standard was phenomenally high, with the judges taking close to an hour to decide which teams would progress to the Inter-regional Final, where other schools from the UK and Republic of Ireland compete.
After a tense wait, our girls were announced as runners-up and now progress to compete at Stormont on March 10th alongside Wallace High and Lurgan College.

The girls’ achievement is astounding in their first year competing and against a cohort of mainly grammar school teams. They are the only comprehensive school moving on to the inter-regional final and we are so proud to have them represent our school.