On Sunday 17th August, the best and brightest language students pitted their skills against one another at the Gold Coast’s 34th Annual Language Speech Contest hosted by Griffith University and the Modern Language Teacher’s Association of Queensland.

Students in the competition travelled from Brisbane, Rockhampton and the Gold Coast to take part in the day and were judged by renowned experts and native speakers of the language.

The annual speech contest, a celebration of foreign language learning, provides students from primary and secondary, private and public schools, an opportunity to compete for gold, silver and bronze medals within their age category. In our first appearance in this competition, we had eight students representing Springfield Central State High School including Bradley Green (Yr 8), Lara Gleeson (Yr 8), Francis Ildefonso (Yr 9), Rhiannah Llewellyn (Yr 9), Jackson Rawiri (Yr 10), Jacob Smith (Yr 10), Jamil Ildefonso (Yr 11) and Ebony Gladdon (Yr 11).

These students worked tirelessly to prepare for the speech contest and dedicated a lot of their own personal time into studying and memorising their speeches and developing their ability to respond to questions in Japanese at the conclusion of their speech.

Competing in a sea of private schools, our students were exemplary ambassadors of Springfield Central State High School and we appreciate their efforts and strong work ethic they invested into making the most of this experience.

At the conclusion of the day, students felt enriched by the experience and came away with a profound sense of pride of what they had achieved on the day.

Special congratulations goes to Rhiannah Llewellyn who placed 2nd, Francis Ildefonso that received Highly Commended  and Ebony Gladdon who placed 3rd.

It is certain that Springfield Central State High students left a lasting impression on the competition and undoubtly we will be keen to compete again in the Annual Speech contest next year.