When audiences listen to a speech, most of their attention – around 93% – is directed not to the actual words, but rather to your physical and verbal manner.  Given this, it is crucial to get this part of public speaking right to ensure that any audience is listening.

Utilising activity-based, experiential learning, students will spend most of their time in this program focusing on developing their own personal speaking manner, helping them engage with their audiences to a much greater degree (whilst also finding a moment here and there to cover the other essential elements of a speech like structure).

For the most part, there is very little that separates our online and physical programs – both are interactive, cover the same theoretical concepts, and give students a range of opportunities to practice and develop their skills. Whilst some activities are different between the two, as some activities lend themselves better to physical or online classes, the actual learning outcomes remain the same for both classes.

Notably, the difference in price isn’t an indication of the quality of the program, or how much students will get out of the experience – both get the same amount of attention and care, and we’ve found some students develop better in an online environment.  The deviation instead is simply a result of the higher costs (such as venue hire) associated with running classes in-person.

Whilst children appear to not be at particularly high risk from COVID-19, SSA places their safety (and the safety of our coaches) as our highest priority.  This emphasis on safety is the first tier of our teaching policy.

We generally consider the risk of transmission at our programs to be very unlikely.  This is for three reasons:

1. From a general perspective, whilst children are not immune, they do show substantially milder symptoms than adults, and appear to catch and transmit the virus at lower rates.
2. Despite high vaccination levels, the Government is still acting cautiously in removing restrictions – most people who catch the virus are quarantined, as are any known close contacts, which has significantly limited the spread of the virus.
3. We have put in place a range of extra protections that are reviewed continuously for best practice, and seek to keep students as safe as possible.

We have prepared our COVID-19 Action Plan, which outlines the three methods we are using to keep students safe.

Whilst you are very welcome to read the Action Plan in full, the four elements are:

1. Vaccination – all of our onsite staff are fully vaccinated, so they pose a substantially reduced risk to our students;
2. Symptom Testing – whilst we instruct all parents not to send students displaying symptoms (or awaiting test results), we will be using temperature checks and coach training to ensure that any students who show symptoms are isolated and removed from programs;
3. Limited Exposure – there are a range of steps in place to help ensure that students (and parents) socially distance, and limit the chance of spreading the virus; and
4. Enhanced Sanitation – we have adopted hand and surface cleaning regimens to help prevent the spread of COVID-19.

Additionally, we will also be continuing to offer online programs for the foreseeable future. This will help ensure that parents and students who are uncomfortable with physical classes have an alternative that allows them to feel safe, whilst still receiving a quality education in public speaking and debating.

Please check out our COVID-19 Action Plan here, or get in touch if you have any questions!

Our Public Speaking Penguins course is a beginner level program.

This course assumes no particular knowledge – students are more than welcome to join the program with little (or even no) public speaking experience.  All students have to start somewhere, and there is no better place to do so than here.

That said, we usually recommend that students do two terms of our Public Speaking Penguins program to ensure that they cover all the basics of public speaking:

• one focusing on ‘manner‘ (the way that students present to audiences), which runs in Terms #1 and #3; and
• the other on ‘method‘ (the best way to structure a speech), which runs in Terms #2 and #4.

That said, if your child has already completed our Public Speaking Hummingbirds holiday program, previously given our Public Speaking Wallabies term program a try, has formal public speaking training from another provider, or is just more interested in debating, they should give our Debating Parrots program a shot.

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

Throughout the term, students will have the opportunity to:

• learn the fundamental concepts that underpin persuasive speeches, placing a particular emphasis on their speaking manner;
• be exposed to a range of different speaking activities, with the view to helping them develop both their confidence and good speaking habits; and
• practice their newfound skills in a nurturing environment with other students at a similar experience level.

Connecting with Audiences

The first couple of sessions focus on both creating a supportive and welcoming class environment, as well as exploring the connection that exists between speakers and their audience.  Students will consider the importance of keeping audiences at the forefront when preparing speeches and strategies that they can use to help engage them more effectively.

Expanding Speech Ideas

As students progress, the focus will shift towards brainstorming ideas that they can craft into speeches.  This involves coming up with opinions on various topics, which students are then required to back up as part of a range of different speaking activities.

Students will also be exposed to the fundamental structures of persuasive speeches to help them expand on those opinions, and craft them into more engaging presentations.

Developing Speaking Manner

From the mid-point of the term, students will move away from the theory of public speaking, and start spending much more of their time focusing on developing their own personal speaking manner. Rather than concentrating on theoretical concepts, these sessions revolve around practise, feedback, reflection and implementation – four critical elements to developing as a speaker.

Parent Presentations

The term ends with a parent presentation – an opportunity for students to present to an adult audience.  Parent presentations are not only a great way to help students develop their confidence, but also represent an opportunity to showcase what they’ve learned.  Students generally spend the last couple of sessions preparing and practising their speeches for the presentation.

For physical classes, we’ll make an assessment closer to the end of the term as to whether we can run presentations in person. If government restrictions still prevent parents from entering the classrooms, we’ll either film their presentations, or potentially live stream them for parents to watch from home!

Our classes vary in size for every workshop depending on how many bookings we receive – however, the maximum size of our Public Speaking Penguins class is around nine students with one coach.

If there aren’t any spots left, it’s usually because we’ve hit capacity – please get in touch with us and we’ll see what we can do about either opening an extra class, fitting your child into the existing class, or putting you on a waitlist in case any students pull out!

By the end of each program, students will have:

• a feedback sheet, prepared individually for them by their coach, which goes through what they’ve improved on, and what still needs some work;
• a certificate recognising their achievements;
• a course booklet that covers everything they’ve learned throughout the program;
• the speech that they prepared for their final presentations; and
• hopefully a better relationship with public speaking more generally!