If you know St Catherine’s Convent, then you definitely know about our public speaking success. Over the years, SCC has become synonymous with excellent public speaking and, this year, we have been as impactful and authentic as ever.
The High School Public Speaking Festival is an annual event in which 106 schools and almost 4000 speakers participate to showcase their most talented public speakers and it is an event St Catherine’s looks forward to every year.
This year, St Catherine’s entered 7 teams into the Festival, including the prestigious Trophy Team. The interpretations of the topics provided were varied and delved into different issues, such as why people have an irrational fear of the number 13 or why people still actively buy from Shein. Overall, every single one of these speeches, displayed eloquence, intelligence and the perfect balance of humour.
The St Catherine’s stellar public speaking reputation is ongoing as 5 of our teams achieved a A+, and 2 of our teams achieved an A.
To cement our status as a school to watch, our Junior public speaking teams attended an awards evening on the 26th of March 2026, where St Catherine’s was placed second out of all the schools who participated in the Festival. St Catherine’s is currently ranked 24th out of 106 schools which is a phenomenal achievement for a school of our size.
We would like to take a moment to appreciate all speakers for the hard work they put into this competition. We can’t wait to see what they achieve in the upcoming years and how they take their voices out in the world, after all, Ralph Waldo Emerson said it best, “speech is power, speech is to persuade, to covert and to compel.”
By: Lesedi Kgarimetsa