February 6, 2012

The Education Departments of Chartwell, the Churchill War Rooms, and Blenheim Palace Announce 2012 Speaking Competition

The Education Teams of Chartwell, The Churchill War Rooms, and Blenheim Palace are currently working along with representatives from both the English Speaking Union (Oxfordshire) and the Churchill Archives to develop a new project for schools on the art of public speaking.

The speeches of Sir Winston Churchill will be used to teach groups of children how to prepare and deliver a good speech. It is also hoped that the project will increase their knowledge of Sir Winston Churchill’s work and his place in the nation’s history.

2024 International Churchill Conference

Join us for the 41st International Churchill Conference. London | October 2024

More

Each of the three sites are working with local schools providing visits which concentrate on the life and work of Sir Winston Churchill (WSC) and master classes in the skills required for successful public speaking. Groups from each school will then work on speeches highlighting the importance of WSC in an area of his work. The groups have been given titles and guidelines as a focus for their work. This information can be found by clicking on the links to the left of this page.

Education staff from each property will, if the schools wish them to, go into the schools to help with the preparation of the speeches, in particular concentrating on the presentation of the speech itself. The speeches will be short, between 4 and 5 minutes long.

During the spring term, the children will showcase these speeches at their schools and the Education staff from the properties will hopefully form part of the audience. It is also envisaged that, towards the end of that term, representatives from each school will be given the opportunity to showcase their work at an event at each of the properties in front of an audience of family, teachers and other interested parties. The project will ultimately culminate in a summer event, to be held at Blenheim Palace, where a school from each site will present its work to an invited audience.

Structure

Schools

• Each team will need to have a minimum of 3 members – a chairperson, speaker and questioner. More pupils/students may be involved as researchers and speech writers.
• Each team to research, prepare and give a 4/5 minute speech on WSC. The responsibility of the chairperson is to introduce the speaker and to give a vote of thanks at the end. The job of the questioner is to time the speaker and to encourage the audience to ask questions of him or her.

Preparation

• Study at least 2 or 3 speeches by WSC and consider the context of each speech as well as its content and then look at what makes it an effective speech.
• Study a brief history of the life of WSC. This should cover topics such as the early influences on him as a child (was he as he said a child of the Victorian era?), Blenheim Palace, his ancestor, the 1st Duke of Marlborough, the ups and downs of his political career, Chartwell, World War II.

How the Churchill sites can help

• Research into aspects of WSC’s life – participating schools are welcome to visit each of the 3 sites free of charge.
• Classroom session at each site if required.
• Public speaking master classes, helped by ESU, members of staff and experienced volunteers from each site.
• Publication of a selection of WSC’s speeches on website (subject to copyright permission from Churchill Archives.)
• The Education Team from Blenheim Palace will be available for outreach work which could perhaps involve giving an assembly on the art of listening & speaking.
• If your school has several teams, then Education Staff would be delighted to attend the in school performance of the prepared speeches and help adjudicate with the ESU adviser.

Local presentation at Blenheim Palace – Tuesday 13th March

• Each school to send 1 team to represent its school and deliver its speech.
• Instant feedback will be given by the panel of adjudicators.
• As we have mixed age groups in this area, then 2 groups would go forward to the final event to be held in the summer term.
• The invited audience would include members of the teams’ families and teachers and staff from Chartwell and the Churchill War Rooms.
• All participating teams to be awarded a certificate

Final summer event – Monday 25th June
1 or 2 teams from each site, (Chartwell, IWM Churchill War Rooms and Blenheim) will attend the final at Blenheim Palace to deliver their speech in front of an invited audience and press. This event will be held in the Marlborough Room at Blenheim Palace.