Telethon Speech & Hearing held its 32nd Power of Speech awards on Saturday, 11th September 2021. Power of Speech celebrates the wonderful outcomes possible for our students with hearing loss, as they exhibit their public speaking skills in front of a live audience. The students’ ages range from Year 1 to Year 6 and represent 13 different Outpost schools across WA.
Each student spends time writing and practicing their speeches with our teachers of the deaf and education assistants throughout the term. They
learn about a range of aspects related to preparing speeches, including using humour to engage the audience and dealing with their nerves. Students also develop their spoken language skills to include new vocabulary and concepts. This year, we had 22 Outpost students with the courage to present a speech in front of their peers, families, friends teachers and VIPs. This was no easy feat with around 200 people in our auditorium!
Geof Parry, a senior news reporter for Channel 7, was our master of ceremonies again this year and did a great job in keeping the event running
smoothly. We also had a panel of three judges – David Price (Certified Speaking Professional), Cathy O’Leary (Editor of Medical Forum Magazine) and Kevin Brown (CEO of Perth Airport). The judges commented that their task of selecting winners gets tougher year on year. They felt that all students were confident on stage and had interesting speeches, making it a real struggle to single out winners!
Power of Speech is an event that takes a lot to organise and involves the hard work of many to pull together each year. This included a professional
lighting, sound and videography team from Techplus Live and Inception Video. Both did a fantastic job and have now enabled Telethon Speech &
Hearing to capture quality recordings of each student’s speech. We also had a professional photographer, Pia Barerra from P.S. Smile Production
taking still images. Trophies, signage and medallions for students looked incredible as usual, thanks to our friends at Allmark and Associates.
Thanks also goes out to our incredible Outpost team of teachers, education assistants, notetakers, and support staff including occupational therapists, speech pathologists, psychologist and audiologists – who have all put in many hours to pull this event together. Our marketing team also worked tirelessly behind the scenes to ensure everything was in order. It was a whole team effort to support the real stars – our wonderful TSH Outpost students.
Once again, the efforts, bravery and fantastic speech, language and public speaking skills exhibited by all students at this year’s Power of Speech were amazing and an extremely positive moment to watch. All students are winners for having a go and delivering remarkable speeches. We can’t wait for next year!
Congratulations to our 2021 Power of Speech Winners!
Geoff Reader Encouragement Award
Oliver Webb, Me.
Category 2 Award
Kyden Robertson, Chessnuts
Category 1 Award
Chloe Hoe, The Power of Music
Mary Shurman Most Improved Award
Sophie O’Connor, The Best Sport in the World
