Brandon Learning Centre: British Education - process, preparation and practicalities

Our first Speech Festival students of this year performed yesterday and, despite nerves, managed to enjoy the experience. Well done Jenny, Hayley and Alex on your first place prizes and Alvina for your second place. For students who are yet to compete; don't forget to warm up, smile and be confident. The Festival is about gaining experience, not winning. Savour the powerful feeling you get when you have a whole room of people listening to you and remember it whenever you need an extra push in the future. Good luck to all of you.

Sometimes, a poem leaps out at you and grabs you by the throat. I discovered this short piece in a wonderful anthology called "London" which is part of the Poetry of Place series and has been put together with exquisite care by Barnaby Rogerson. The imagery of The Embankment is a profoundly moving plea, particularly as the weather becomes colder and we start focusing our thoughts to celebrations and warmth. I was especially drawn to the unexpected replacement of the familiar "moth-eaten" with "star-eaten." Sometimes,we need a poem which challenges our expectations, re-orders our priorities and shakes us out of our complacency. This would make a stirring performance poem; short and emotive and guaranteed to leave your audience wanting more. The Embankment - Thomas Ernest Hulme the fantasy of a fallen gentleman on a cold, bitter night Once, in finesse of fiddles found I ecstasy, In the flash of gold heels on the hard pavement. Now see I That wa

The Hong Kong Schools Speech Festival is an event in which many children compete and only a few win. Or do they all win? I believe so! Why? 1: Experience speaking in front of an audience is never wasted; the more opportunities you have, the more confident you become. 2: Poetry enhances vocabulary. I can still remember GK Chesterton's The Donkey which I recited a hundred years ago in a speech festival! It taught me about alliteration, parody and made me look at animals in a completely different way. 3: Festivals are so called because they celebrate the power and beauty of the human voice. Listen to the myriad of ways people read and you may pick up some new skills We compete, some get placed but all are winners and the prizes last for a lifetime. To read "The Donkey" by GK Chesterton an outstanding poem for reading aloud To find out more about Brandon and our philosophy we are opening in Jordan shortly, very exciting !

Lying on the sofa in Chelsea, shivering on the beach in Ireland, sitting on a bus in Hong Kong. All places that I have read this poem. Each time, I shiver with the exhilaration of the first verse, and the courage of the second. The Hill - Rupert Brooke Breathless, we flung us on the windy hill, Laughed in the sun, and kissed the lovely grass. You said, "Through glory and ecstasy we pass; Wind, sun, and earth remain, the birds sing still, When we are old, are old..." "And when we die All's over that is ours; and life burns on Through other lovers, other lips," said I, - "Heart of my heart, our heaven is now, is won!" "We are Earth's best, that learnt her lesson here. Life is our cry. We have kept the faith!" we said; "We shall go down with unreluctant tread Rose-crowned into the darkness!" ... Proud we were, And laughed, that had such brave true things to say. - And then you suddenly cried, and turned away.

Wedding presents serve a number of purposes; they demonstrate that you care for the couple, that you want to give them a good start or (if we are being cynical) that you want to use your wealth to impress or even to cement business contacts. If you are short on the cash but long on the love, a poem is a heavenly present that really does keep on giving. Beautifully re-copied on a scroll or frame (depending on your creativity and budget) a poem is always a winner. As an extra gift, you could even offer to recite at the Wedding Breakfast. Last year, we had a fabulous student at Brandon Learning Centre who wanted to practice a poem for his Grandparent's 50th wedding anniverary. I heard later that his Grandmother said that this was the most meaningful gift she had every received. Ideas could include: Sonnets from the Portugese - Elizabeth Barrett Browning Sweetly pretty and has the benefit of being instantly quotable: How do I love thee? Let me count the ways. I love thee to

My wonderful father in law reminded me of one of my favourite poems during a discussion on military tactics last night. This may sound unlikely but is a perfect example of how poetry, once learned, is never forgotten. The poem in question is "Vitai Lampada" by Sir Henry Newbolt. Written at a time when England's public schools were producing a generation which would fight for the Empire, the poem is an mix of the reality of war ("the square that broke" ie the remains of the formation of men after the Battle of Abu Klea and the puncturing of the myth of infallibility) and the love of honour and companionship embedded in the school system. The title roughly translates as "the passing on of the light"; an idea which is echoed in the third verse. From schoolboy dreams to carnage on the battlefield, the poem is at once stirring and desperate. Vitai Lambada - Sir Henry Newbolt There's a breathless hush in the Close to-night — Ten to make and the

Post Christmas lunch.. full to the brim with turkey and Chritmas spirit, what could be better than to amuse the family with a cautionary tale? These poems/monologues were a strange beastie, incredibly popular in the late nineteeth/early twenties century. The master is Hilaire Belloc whose Cautionary Tales are full of examples of people whose actions bring them to a (normally abrupt) end. Although the subject matter is macarbre, these poems make wonderful performance pieces. The lyrical language lends itself to reading outloud and you can use pauses to increase anticipation before revealing the climax. At Brandon Learning Centre, we have poetry reading shows twice a year and I have noticed that the audiences will lean forward as performers pause before the high point of their poems. My father, who is a born performer, used to read "Albert and the Lion" in which the combination of a small boy, a walking stick and a lion leads to a predictable result. The monologue was originall

The Irish have always had a love of performance and I grew up surrounded by powerful speakers and singers. Family parties would always end up with people reciting, singing ballads and dancing (usually me but there was money involved!) We all had "party pieces" which would be trundled out in front of a crowd of relatives who had heard them a hundred times before. As a child, performing in front of a non-critical, family audience is a perfect start to a public speaking career. Memorising poetry at an early age helps to develop an appreciation for language and stretches the vocabulary. The love and encouragement that you receive from the family will stay with you forever. So this Christmas, instead of loafing in front of the television, try some of the sites below and start performing. Wonderful Radio 4 poetry programme with readings of contemporary and classic poetry A treasure trove of poetry Use the quote search function to identify half remembered poems My father's party

Think about it; if you are playing a violin, or a flute, or even the kettle drums, you warm up your instrument before a concert. Maybe you'll play a couple of practice notes or run through a couple of scales? And yet, when speaking in public, the majority of people walk on to the platform and expect their voice to be in full working order. Wrong.. wrong.. wrong. So what do you do to warm up? 1: Go somewhere quiet and (if you are self conscious as most of us are) somewhere private. 2: Shake out your legs, your arms, your shoulders and finally your head. Don't hold back! Get rid of all the tension. 3: Take a few deep breaths making sure that you are breathing from the diaphragm (hold your hand on your tummy to ensure that this is happening) 4: Release your breath slowly whilst running through the vowels. Open your mouth as widely as possibly and really stretch out your face. Repeat this a few times. 5: Read the first few lines of your speech or poem. Over exagerate. You are all s