Confident Brandon wins RightStart Speech Contest 2017

A confident and well-spoken Brandon Byer-Maloney of the Gordon Walters Primary School commanded the attention of the audience at the Olympus Theatres to win the 2017 Republic Bank RightStart Primary Schools’ Speech Contest with a speech entitled: “The Legal System”.

Fluent and engaging in delivery, Brandon left the audience in no doubt that they were listening to a great orator in the making. Speaking after the contest, the confident young speaker said he was very happy with his victory and also thankful for the support of teachers and fellow students, competitors, and particularly his mother and biggest fan, Andrea Maloney. His prizes included a Republic Bank RightStart Bank Account valued $600.00; an IView Laptop compliments Promotech; a Birthday Party compliments Cheffette Restaurants valued at $150.00; a back-to-school voucher from Abeds & Co. Ltd. valued at $200.00; a voucher for a 2.5 litre of ice cream from Bico Limited; and promotional items from Yello.

Second place in the annual competition went to Darren King of Lawrence T. Gay, delivering a beautifully penned speech entitled “Bio-diversity: what’s your gazelle”, an object lesson for humanity in how a gazelle proved to be the common thread in the lives of several other animals. King won a Republic Bank RightStart Bank Account valued $450.00; one iView Tab SupraPad I-700QW 16GB compliments Promotech; a back-to-school voucher from Abeds valued at $150.00; a voucher for a 2.5 litre of ice cream from Bico Limited; and promotional items from Yello.

Azariah Lowe-Parris’ placed third with “Social Media: Power in numbers”, a look at the phenomenon of going viral on social media. She won a Republic Bank RightStart Account valued $300.00; one HP Printer Desk Jet 3775 AIO compliments Promotech; a back-to-school voucher from Abeds valued at $100.00; and a voucher for a 2.5 litre of ice cream from Bico Limited. The representative schools of the top three students each won a school prize of a Republic Bank account valued at $2000, $1500, and $1000 respectively.

Runners-up were Adenike Watts of Hindsbury Primary with “Discrimination – It’s not pretty”; Amariah Brathwaite, also of Hindsbury Primary, her speech entitled: “Bim’s next 50”; and Tishani Jordan of Christ Church Girls with “Green Barbados”. All three runners-up won Republic Bank RightStart Accounts valued at $150.00 and 2.5 litre tubs of BICO ice-cream.

Chief Judge, David Parris, said the Contest had reached an extremely high standard.

“We can see that much preparation, practice and hard work has been put into these speeches which excelled in structure, flow and transition. Quotations were from reputable sources, and there was effective use of gestures and body language. We also saw the effective use of humour, repetition for emphasis, beautiful voice control and good use of the speaking area, while openings were fresh and creative with effective conclusions,” Parris stated.

The annual RightStart Speech Contest for Primary Schools is an integral component of Republic Bank’s “Power to Make a Difference” corporate social responsibility programme.