Year 10 student at Paddington Academy wins Speak Out Challenge Regional Final

A Paddington Academy student won first place at the Speak Out Challenge regional final for Westminster and
Kensington and Chelsea. The final was held at Quintin Kynaston school in December 2009. Fifteen students from ten schools competed for the chance to reach the grand final and the speeches did not disappoint. All
of the students were given three minutes to speak on a topic of their choice in front of a large audience made
up of families, friends, teachers and a panel of eight judges. There were speeches about spiders and pigeons,
love and discrimination, family tragedies and triumphs and all of those who spoke did a fantastic job.

Dina was the eighth speaker and when she started you could hear a pin drop as everyone sat transfixed listening to the Paddington Academy student discuss her experiences in Gaza and her plea for freedom for her
Palestinian homeland. Dina spoke with passion and conviction and when her three minutes were up the
audience erupted in applause.

All of her supporters at QK were very proud of her as she was called up to accept her first place trophy. Dina will now be invited to attend the grand final in Blackfriars in July where she may be asked to speak in front
of an audience of thousands. The Speak Out Challenge is a public speaking competition funded by the Jack Petchey Foundation and is aimed at year 10 students from across London and Essex . Year 10 students are given the chance to attend in school training sessions on public speaking and eight students are chosen to speak at assemblies in their school.

This year Julia Alfamaia, Zeynab Anmar, Anita Toverljani, Aleksandra Kumiega, Charlotte Rowe, Al-Hussain Al-Keraim and Dina El-Deeb presented their speeches in year 7 and year 8 assemblies and they all did very well.
Congratulations Dina and we wish you the best of luck at the grand final in July!