Public Speaking Brilliance at Belltrees

By Taylah Fellows

CHIP packets were a hot topic of discussion last week at the Belltrees Public School annual public speaking event.

Twelve-year-old veteran public speaker, Archie Mamone shrugged off his nerves and came out guns a-blazing in his stage three senior group, delivering a speech on the necessity of air in chip packets.

See photos below.

“I picked up a chip packet and it was half full and I said to mum ‘why is it half full?’ and she said ‘you could do that for your speech’ and thats kind of how I came up with it,” said Archie Mamone.

“It’s just really fun getting up in front of people and just sharing your speech with everyone… it’s really cool,” he said.

Angela Mamone, proud mother of Arhice said even though her son has not picked a career year yet, he’s very passionate about public speaking.

“He’s been doing public speaking since he was about 6 years old and he’s just gotten better and better each year,” said Ms Mamone.

It was the seventh time Archie had participated in the event and he said he aims to qualify for zone again this year.

“I’ve got three first places in the past three years…It feels good when you make it to zone,” said Archie.

The purpose of the public speaking event is to give kids the opportunity to stand up and talk in front of their neighbouring colleagues, a much larger crowd than what they are used to on a normal school day.

Fiona Hubbard, Blandford school parent, said that even though her children get nervous they really enjoy meeting and mingling with the kids from other small schools.

“It’s out of their comfort zone but they forge quite strong friendships with these children through thee kind of events and its a really good way for them to get comfortable with public speaking,” said Ms Hubbard.

The event is expanding with Martindale and Sandy Hollow school kids joining in on the fun this year.

Shane Roberts, Principal of Belltrees Public School said by the expanding event, it will help the kids prepare to speak in front of 200 people if they qualify for the zone competition in Muswellbrook. 

“Normally we don’t have all six schools here but this year we’ve got Murundi, Blandford, Ellerston as well as Martindale and Sandy Hollow joining us,” said Principal Roberts.

“Last year we had about thirty-five kids and this year we had sixty-two so it’s growing,” he said. 

Archie Mamone practised his speech for three weeks before the event. “I knew it [my speech] pretty well, we practised every single night, three or four times but its pretty fun doing it,” said Archie.

Principal Shane Roberts preps his Belltrees speakers before the event kicks off.

Smiling faces of relief after speeches were presented. Top left to right: Ben Baker, James Porter, Riley Perez, Robert Griesheimer, Blake Grimes, Archie Mamone, Darcy Taylor, Jack Tyler, Moss Hutton. Bottom left to right: Gypsy Howie, Grace Grainger, Sally Payne