The ACT Plain English Speaking Award

For more information on the competition for the current year: Programs > PESA

On the 3rd of August an impressive evening of public speaking was celebrated at the Ainslie Arts Centre where senior students gathered to compete in the ACT final of the Plain English Speaking Award for 2023.

The oldest and most prestigious speaking competition in Australia, PESA is open to all Australian secondary students in year 9 and above. The competition involves students from most states and territories, with one winner selected to represent their jurisdiction in the national final.

PESA contestants — Left to right, back row: Kenneth Le, Princess Kisakye, Sebastian Singh, Emily Ezaki Swain, Debika Dasgupta. Left to right, front row: Charles Marpaung, Elizabeth Barker, Helena Fon, Anusha Bajracharya.

This ACT annual final was the second since Consensus enthusiastically took up convening PESA in the ACT last year with the mission to help revitalise the opportunity for students in the Territory. We also ran another free online workshop in public speaking best-practice to help prepare the students for the competition.

Nine speakers from seven schools took part in the final, giving both prepared and impromptu speeches, with Elizabeth Barker from Hawker College being the well-deserved winner. The speeches of Charles Marpaung (Canberra College) and Kenneth Le (Daramalan College) were highly commended.

James Smith, who gave the oral adjudication for the panel of judges, was excited by the standard the speakers showed. ‘The quality of their ideas and the way they were structured and expressed was fantastic. I’ve lost count of the number of public speaking finals I’ve adjudicated, but this was among the very good ones.’

We congratulate Molly Hoogland, from Santa Sabina College in New South Wales, who went on to win the national final. She will receive from Consensus, as sponsors of the final, the Award Prize of $500.

James Smith giving the oral adjudication.