Debating and Public Speaking Awards
Dr Norman Fary Award for Public Speaking
The Dr Norman Fary Award is an award made each year to the Year 12 Student who has displayed excellence, leadership and commitment in the field of public speaking. The award is sponsored by Dr Norman Fary, a former principal of the College. It recognises the importance of communication, critical thinking, advocacy and the ability to inspire others in the creation of our future leaders.
The recipient of the award should serve as a positive role model for other students as demonstrated by their attitude, involvement, performance in and promotion of public speaking within the College. The awarding of this prize will be based upon the combined contributions and accomplishments of the student over the course of their schooling at St Leonard’s College, with emphasis given to their achievements during the senior years of their schooling.
The following criteria will be taken into account when determining the recipient of the award. No single criteria should be taken as determinative and the weighting given to each criteria will at the discretion of the awarding committee.
The criteria are as follow:
- Contribution to Public Speaking: The recipient of the award should have made a substantial contribution to public speaking within the College community. This can include, but is not limited to:
- involvement and performance in events such as the Dr Norman Fary Public Speaking competition;
- speaking before members of the school community at assemblies;
- speaking before members of the school community at public events; and
- speaking before members of the school community through the exercising of a leadership role.
- Representation of the College: The recipient of the award should have demonstrated a willingness to represent the College within the community through a range of public speaking events. Consideration will be given to the number and nature of the competitions competed in and the level of success achieved. This can include, but is not limited to:
- school representation at ACS Public Speaking;
- school representation at the VCAA Plain English Speaking Awards;
- school representation at the Australian Individual Debating and Public Speaking Championships; and
- performance in interschool debating and/or public speaking competitions.
The Dr Norman Fary Award is a major College prize, and the recipient will be presented with their award at the College Speech Night.
St Leonard’s College Debating Captain
The role of Debating Captain is awarded to a senior debater for their achievement and excellence during their involvement in debating at St Leonard’s, and in recognition of their leadership and involvement within the wider debating and public speaking program.
The Debating Captain is a leadership position and is expected to represent the College in a range of peak debating and public speaking competitions and may be called upon to assist with major debating-related events within the College community. The Debating Captain is appointed at the discretion of the Debating Coordinator. The awardee will has their position recognised with the other cocurricular leaders at an assembly at the start of the school year.
College ‘Best Speaker’ Award
The St Leonard’s College ‘Best Speaker’ Award acknowledges individual excellence in the field of debating and may be awarded to any student who participated in the DAV Schools Competition.
The Award is given to those St Leonard’s debaters in each grade of the DAV Schools Competition who have received the highest average individual speaker scores after participating in a minimum of three debates, with additional points awarded for each time a debater is awarded Best Speaker by a DAV adjudicator. The best speaker award is an individual award and is not influenced by the number or wins or losses a team has had.
The recipients of this award will be announced presented with their award at the end of season debating function.