The Chrystall Prize Public-Speaking Competition first began after Chrystall Carter, a legal adviser for the GDST, died suddenly in 1999. It was set up by her husband Richard to mark her commitment to the GDST girls and her belief in the power of argument.
Alice B, Year 11, was honoured to have been nominated as Howell's School’s speaker to compete for the Chrystall Prize and was eager to start the process. Eventually, Alice decided to pick the unorthodox topic of ‘Are you sitting next to a psychopath or sociopath? It made a chilling and informative speech which I was lucky enough to hear after being invited to accompany her to Bath.
This year, the semi-finals took place in Royal High School, Bath, another GDST school which doesn’t look too dissimilar from Howells. The day began with a train journey from Cardiff Central to Bath Spa with Miss Cockburn to supervise us. The journey was filled with topical discussion of serial killers and psychopaths, which earned us some concerned looks from other passengers on the train. Upon arriving at the school, we were intimidated at first glance by its manor house appearance and red-carpeted staircases, but instantly felt at home when we met the other contestants. The contestants were a mixture of Year 11 students from other GDST schools across England, some of whom were extremely disappointed that we didn’t have typical Welsh accents and all of whom were extremely friendly and welcoming. During lunch, we all got to know each other well and exchanged our different experiences of being students at GDST schools. After we had eaten an excessive amount of wraps, fruit and brownies for lunch, the competition began.
Alice spoke confidently and with excellent knowledge of her topic. It was also clear that she had interest in her topic and enjoyed delivering her opinions on it. All of the speakers of the afternoon spoke on thoroughly interesting topics and delivered their speeches with confidence that would have made Chrystall Carter proud. The judges were torn between all five contestants and took 45 minutes to reach a final decision on who was to be the winner. Unfortunately, Alice didn’t win a place to take part in the final round but the judges all agreed that she spoke with outstanding ability and confidence.
It was a valuable experience that gave us both insight into how similar our lives were to those of other GDST girls. Alice also felt the feedback from the judges was extremely useful and will be sure to apply it to the speeches she is to write in the future.
Kate M, Year 11.