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Rising Voices Public Speaking Championship

Registrations Open for 2025!
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Build your confidence in a fun and welcoming environment at the Rising Voices Public Speaking Championship 2025! Speaking Schools White Dots

Be part of a public speaking experience hosted by one of Australia's top public speaking training organisations that will get your child outside their comfort zone!

How will Rising Voices work? Speaking Schools dots Speaking Schools dots

Overview

Public speaking isn't all about winning. Core to our mission is helping students develop the skills they need to take on life feeling more empowered and resilient.

So, as nice as it would be for everyone to come out victorious, there is so much more to the Rising Voices Championship - from meeting new people, to challenging ourselves in new and exciting ways, to proving our competence to ourselves and silencing our inner critics.

Join us on an adventure of self-discovery as we go through in-person and online Preliminaries in June 2025 that will determine the exceptional students (1 from each SSA class, and 10% of online submissions) who will proceed to the Semi-Finals in Early August, with a further 6 from each division heading to the Grand Final later in August!

Competition Divisions

The competition will be divided into five divisions:

- Stage 1 - Years 1 & 2
- Stage 2 - Years 3 & 4
- Stage 3 - Years 5 & 6
- Stage 4 - Years 7 & 8
- Stage 5 - Years 9 & 10

Each division will have both an Online Semi-Final for all students who make it through the Preliminary rounds, with the top six students from each division heading to the Grand Final.

Participant Guides

We've got detailed participant guides for all students who register to participate in the Rising Voices Public Speaking Championship in 2025.

If you have any particular questions about the competition, please don't hesitate to reach out to us at contact@speakingschools.com.au!

Speech Topics

All speeches in the Preliminary and Semi-Final Rounds will be prepared speeches.

With our vision and mission in mind, the theme for Rising Voices 2025 will be Peace.

There are four unique topics carefully selected for each division, with students only needing to pick one topic to write their prepared speech on.

Years 1 & 2
1. A Happy Home Means a Peaceful Home
2. My Peace Hero: Someone who Inspires Me
3. My Contribution to a Peaceful Community
4. Sharing Is Caring – A Way to Peace

Years 3 & 4
1. How Education Helps Build a Peaceful World
2. Great Leaders Choose Peace First
3. Peace Begins with me and my Family
4. United we Stand. Divided we Fall

Years 5 & 6
1. Power, Peace, Prosperity
2. Let’s Talk It Out: Solving Conflicts Peacefully
3. Protecting the Values that Keep Peace Alive
4. What History Teaches us About Peace and War

Year 7 & 8
1. World Peace: Dream or Possibility?
2. Australia's Role in Bringing about World Peace
3. Media and Its Impact on Peace in Society
4. My Vision for a Peaceful World

Years 9 & 10
1. The Cost of War vs. the Value of Peace
2. Peacebuilding in the Digital Age
3. Balancing Coexistence and Mutual Dependence Among Nations
4. Rewriting the Future: Peace as Policy, not Hope

The prepared speech topics remain the same across the Preliminary, Semi-Final and Grand Final stages, so students are welcome to re-use their speech across each round!

Preliminary Round

In 2025, there are going to be two routes that students are able to take.

For students enrolled in a Term #2 program, they are automatically registered for the competition, and will be invited to prepare their speech and present it to their class in mid-May. The coach will mark all speeches against the rubric we use to judge formal interschool competitions, and choose one student that will go through the Semi-Finals.

For students not currently enrolled in our Term #2 programs, they will be able to participate using an online submission system. Judges will watch all speeches, mark them against the same rubric, and select the best students from each division to go through to the Semi-Finals. The number of successful students will change depending on the number of submissions.

Results and invitations to the Semi-Finals will be provided via email.

If you're not currently enrolled in a Term #2 SSA program, register here to be part of the competition!

Semi-Finals

All successful students will be invited to participate in the Semi-Finals, which will be held online.

Students are welcome to present the same prepared speech that they used for the Preliminaries, or choose another topic entirely. Students will only be required to present a prepared speech for the Semi-Finals.

Given we can't be sure of the number of Semi-Finalists, we may need to make slight amendments to the dates and times to be as inclusive as possible.

Depending on sponsorships, invited students may be required to pay a small fee in order to participate in the Semi-Finals.

Grand Final

The Grand Final is scheduled to take place in-person at Parramatta, Sydney. More details will be provided for the Grand Final in due course.

Whilst finalists in Years 1 to 4 will just need to present their original prepared speech, finalists in Years 5 - 10 will also need to present an impromptu speech on an unknown topic as well.

Should any participants make it through to the Grand Final but not be able to physically attend on the day (either due to illness or location), we will arrange for a live stream of those students.

Student Takeaways

All participants will get:
- personalised feedback from their judge, which will provide details on what they did well, and what they can improve upon;
- a digital certificate demonstrating their participation in the competition;
- the opportunity to prepare and present a speech under similar conditions to those they would need to meet in interschool competitions; and
- the chance to be named as a finalist in the Rising Voices Public Speaking Championship 2025!

For those who reach the Grand Final:
- all students will receive a physical certificate to recognise their success in getting so far;
- students ranking first, second and third will receive special certificates and trophies to commemorate their amazing results;
- the opportunity for a special interview for the winner of each division, with the answers being featured across the Insider newsletter and social media platforms; and
- depending on sponsorship, there may be some special prizes handed out as well!

Sponsorship

Given Rising Voices 2025 is going to be run at cost, we are also currently looking for potential sponsors to help us keep the event as cheap as possible for participants.

If you're potentially interested in sponsoring the event, or know someone who might be, please reach out to us at contact@speakingschools.com.au to learn more!

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Interested in joining Rising Voices 2025?

Registrations are now open!