Your Child❜s Confidence Will Soar With SpeakOut School❜s Awesome Workshops

By: Helena Leung, ellaslist explorer

Did you know that more people are afraid of public speaking than they are of death?

Jerry Seinfeld once quipped that this meant most people at a funeral would prefer to be the person in the coffin than the poor chap giving the eulogy! As a teacher I know that public speaking is not something that comes naturally to most adults, let alone children. Some kids thrive in the spotlight, happy to perform in front of an audience. Dancing to Despacito in the supermarket seems to come naturally for my kids, but the average child usually needs a fair amount of coaxing to formally speak up in front of their peers.

What Is SpeakOut?

Katharine Collins is a current TEDx speaking coach and the founder of SpeakOut Schools. From her experience, she realised the importance of training students in public speaking from an early age and observed the advantage of addressing their fears before the children reached an inhibiting level of self-consciousness. SpeakOut runs three different levels of workshops aimed for years 3-4, 5-6 and 7-10, tailored to suit the student’s ages and abilities. What seems to impress mums most about these workshops is how much FUN their children have- they're learning skills translatable to the classroom and other aspects of life, and having a giggle while they're at it. 

Small Class Sizes & Passionate Teachers

My daughter, although confident in her own spheres, can be shy and cautious so I was interested to see what skills she would glean from the SpeakOut beginner’s workshop. Aimed at students in years 3-4, the holiday workshop ran from 9am-3pm, conveniently mirroring the hours of a school day. The class size was small and intimate with 11 students. The two SpeakOut coaches, Katharine and Josh, were encouraging and obviously passionate about teaching children the public speaking basics, so brought the content to life and had kids hanging onto their every word. 

A Brief Summary Of The Workshop:

• Plenty of speaking related fun and games
• Brain storming to gather the ideas of the children
• The importance of body language, facial expressions, voice projection, tone, and emotion
• Covering the structure of a basic speech in an interesting way
• Opportunities for the children to get creative, write and present a speech
• Morning tea and lunch time
• More fun games!

What Did We Think Of SpeakOut?

Despite not knowing any other students my daughter felt comfortable attending this workshop. My daughter was highly engaged, actively listening and absorbing all the speaking pointers that Katharine and Josh were teaching. I’m sure all of this information will consolidate her public speaking knowledge and build her confidence for the future in many other aspects aside from public speaking, too. What was also beneficial was the positive and constructive feedback each child was given at the completion of their speech. They also received a SpeakOut certificate and a booklet with all the material covered in the workshop.

Who Should Attend SpeakOut?

SpeakOut aims to encourage anxious speakers as well as to extend the skills of the confident speaker.

SpeakOut provides fun games and activities that allow children to digest and practice the basics of public speaking in a small, encouraging setting- and have fun while they're at it! I would recommend SpeakOut for any student wishing to improve their confidence in writing and delivering a speech as this is a skill that will definitely boost their capabilities in the classroom and beyond. Often, although children are made to give speeches and presentations during class, schools don't equip them with the skills and knowledge to pull it off confidently and effectively, so that's where SpeakOut comes in. 

For more information, visit their website.