Course Overview

Bookings are closed for Term #4 – register your interest to join in 2025 here!

Key Features

Runs over 1-hour, 1.5-hour and 2-hour weekly sessions, depending on venue
Designed for experienced Year 1 students and all Year 2 students
Encourages students to step outside their comfort zones and places a particular focus on cultivating engaging presentation styles
Recognises students’ developmental stage and places emphasis on practising speeches and speaking activities rather than theory
Similar structure each week – students begin with an activity, run through a new element of content and consolidate with practical speaking tasks
All sessions are run in a supportive and nurturing learning environment
Small classes to ensure everyone can practice and receive plenty of individualised feedback

If you’re looking for a way to build confidence while covering simpler content, you may want to give our Presentation Skills Leopards program a try.

Term Focuses

The focus of each Lions program changes every term, with the same stream running across all our venues (and online):

Term #1 – Persuasive Speeches, with a focus on pulling together cohesive and logical presentations;
Term #2 – preparing and presenting engaging stories through Creative Narratives;
Term #3 – Convincing Audiences, focusing on developing a captivating speaking manner to get your audience onside; and
Term #4 – looking at Exploring Worlds in an engaging and informative way.

While it’s recommended that students try each of these focuses, and the emphases change each year, there is no particular need to start with any of them, meaning students are welcome to join at any time!

More Information

Discover how our in-person and online programs differ on our FAQs
Learn more about the SSA Credits & Refund policy
Find out more about the type of things students cover in our blog

Imagination can take us on amazing journeys, even if they can at times be difficult to express.

In Term #4, our Lions students will focus on a Exploring Worlds in a way that engages their audience. Each week, students will look at a new skill (from descriptive language to high modality phrases to inserting emotion) and apply it to a different journey they take through a world they invent using their imagination. By combining the two together, the aim is to help students make their presentations more informative, longer and more engaging.

At its heart, this program is all about helping students find what interests them, and giving them the tools and confidence to express it to the world through plenty of opportunities to practice and receive feedback.

After completing the Exploring Worlds program, students should:

understand the fundamentals of informative speeches;
have been given the opportunity to adapt their skills in a range of contexts, describing their journeys through various different imaginative and engaging worlds; and
have been given multiple opportunities to present to their class every session.

Our Presentation Skills Lions course is a mixed-experience program designed for all Year 2 students and experienced Year 1 students.

It is tailored for:

Students in Year 2 who have no public speaking experience (who can join from any term – there’s no requirement to join at the beginning of the year);
Students who have already completed one or more terms of Lions (the focus changes every term, so there’s no repetition of content for students);
Students who have been completing our Presentation Skills Leopards program and have either entered Year 2, or have been recommended to move up by their coach;
Students who have previously completed either our Speaking Skills Butterflies or Speaking Skills Bumblebees workshops for Kindy kids;
Students in Year 1 who are not able to make any of our Presentation Skills Leopards classes; and
Any students in Year 1 or 2 who have previously tried our Presentation Skills Tabby Cats or Presentation Skills Tigers holiday workshops and have been recommended to join by their coach!

We usually recommend that students continue with Presentation Skills Lions throughout Year 2 (before moving up to Public Speaking Wombats or Debating Wallabies). The focus changes every term, so there’s always something new for students to learn!

Please get in touch if you’d like to discuss what’s best for your child!

Revision of Fundamental Concepts

The program starts with a succinct (but critical) revision of essential concepts, including audience engagement and speech structure.

This helps prepare students for the rest of the program and ensures that everyone starts on a similar level, especially students who have not been exposed to public speaking before.

Detailed Informative Speeches

For the Exploring Worlds focus for our Lions program, students will generally cover:

Topic #1 – Introductions, icebreakers & different purposes of speeches
Topic #2 – The essentials of speech structure
Topic #3 – Techniques to make informative speeches longer and more engaging
Topic #4 – Adapting these ideas to a range of different imaginative worlds
Topic #5 – Pulling each concept together and forming an engaging end-of-term presentation

Practice Speeches & Activities

The remainder of the program introduces them to various concepts and activities that will help enhance their presentation skills, which are, in turn, reinforced through regular practice speeches and feedback!

End of Term Presentation

Each term ends with a presentation, either to peers or parents (depending on the venue). This is an excellent opportunity for students to showcase what they’ve learned over the course of the term and continue their confidence-building journey.

Students generally spend the last couple of sessions preparing and practising their speeches for the presentation.

Coaches will also provide an update to parents on what was covered during the term, as well as what comes next for the students’ public speaking journeys.

This program is not suitable for nearly every Kindy student.

We have specifically designed two programs for our tiny tots:

Speaking Skills Butterflies, which runs during the school term; and
Speaking Skills Bumblebees, which runs over two days during the school holidays.

Given the age group involved, these programs are only in-person – we don’t run any Kindy programs online.

Our Leopards, Lions, Tabby Cats and Tigers programs are designed for Year 1 – 2 students. They require students to be able to write at least simple sentences, as well as read their own handwriting and instructions on the board, which most Kindergarten students are unfortunately not able to do. This may well lead to those students feeling inferior to the rest of the class, creating new fears around public speaking – the exact opposite of what we hope to achieve.

As a mixed-experience program, our Presentation Skills Lions program is designed to be completed multiple times – with a different focus every term, there’s always something new for students to take away from the program!

Alternatively, our 1 or 1.5-hour Presentation Skills Leopards class has similar focuses to our Lions program, meaning you can also attend it interchangeably without repeating content.

However, if you’re looking for something during a school break, you may want to try one of our holiday workshops, such as Presentation Skills Tigers, which builds on the skills learned during the term.

Check out our Frequently Asked Questions, or get in touch using our contact form to learn more!