A teenager with a fear of talking in public overcame her nerves in her first ever public speaking competition and scooped first prize.
Pakeeza Noor spoke out against peer pressure as part of the Derby City School’s Public Speaking Competition and she came away as the winner. The event was organised by Derby LIVE and The Lost Boys Theatre Company.
The Murray Park Community School pupil headed to the mayor’s chambers at The Council House as one of 14 young people taking part in the competition. It is the first time that a pupil at the school has won the award.
The Lost Boys Theatre Company paid a visit to the school for a workshop on public speaking and speech writing prior to the competition and gave pupils some tips to help them speak with confidence.
Pakeeza, who is in year 10, said: “This was about overcoming the fear and I wanted to go first so that I could get it out of the way. I was quite shaky when I could see all of these people right in front of me but once I started I was fine and really proud of myself.
“It is the first time I’ve won an award so I didn’t know what to do.
“I was the first to go up and I was nervous. I would advise others to just believe in yourself and just go up and do it confidently, especially if you are speaking about what you like and what you are passionate about.
“I wanted to challenge myself and because our school has never won it, I thought I wanted to win this.
“I felt for me that it was a learning experience and if I had to do it again, I would be more confident. Peer pressure is important to me because it’s something quite current in our generation and something impacting teenagers like myself in today’s society.
“Some people are just going with the flow and that’s so wrong. You should do what you want to do and what you are passionate about but most people do what they think they should do due to things like TikTok and Snapchat.
“I’m really proud of myself and very grateful to Mr Taylor and Miss Pattison-Corney.”
The 15-year-old spent around three weeks drafting her speech on peer pressure ready for the big day.
The competition started with heats with 10 students from Murray Park taking part before five were selected to compete in the finals. Four pupils competed against other schools from across Derbyshire on the big day before Pakeeza was declared the overall winner.
Tim Taylor, the school’s aspirations careers employability coordinator, said: “There were so many good speeches. I’m immensely proud. All the finalists from Murray Park were outstanding but Pakeeza in particular stood out.
“All the students from all the schools were passionate about what they were saying. The range of topics and issues they addressed melted your heart. It was obvious that it was a subject that meant a lot to the individuals.
“We are really thankful to Ben and Paul from the Lost Boys Theatre on providing these workshops for the students.”
Drama teacher Olympia Pattison-Corney added: “I’m super proud of all the students. I have known them since they were 11 and they have all grown in confidence which is phenomenal.
“I think this is important for any career as every career requires you to speak freely and you need to be able to do that in any walk of life.”
Pakeeza received four free tickets to an evening of her choice at the Darley Park Weekender 2023 as her prize for winning, as well as the trophy.
