I was so proud of the staff and students at school last week.
Voice Box went really well and everyone enjoyed it! The children have worked so
hard to learn and rehearse their jokes and all did brilliantly on stage! 41
children performed their jokes in front of a hall packed with children,
parents, staff and the judging panel. Our judges included Michael Harvey from
Business in the Community, Trevor Frost from TD Stockbrokers, Richard Burgon,
MP for Leeds East and Harry Gration from BBC Look North!
The week leading up to Voice Box was busy with helping
children to prepare and practice their jokes. I did some additional rehearsal
sessions with some of the children on my caseload who needed a little bit more
specialist support with practising.
Over the half term holidays there was a competition for the
children to design a poster advertising the event. There were lots of creative
entries and the winner got a £10 gift card. All the posters have been displayed
around school in the week leading up to Voice Box and the children were eagerly
counting down to the big day!
On the Thursday afternoon we had a complete run through of
all the jokes, to check the children were happy with what they were doing and
to help them with projecting their voices etc. We also wanted to check that no
one had changed their joke from the original entry (which only happened a
couple of times!)
On the morning of Voice Box Laura (SENCO) and I decorated
the hall ready for the afternoon. Laura bought some lovely star bunting and I
had blown up some balloons. We put the medals and winner’s trophy on a table at
the front and I put the Giving Voice pop up banner in the middle of the stage.
We set up a table for the judges near the front of the hall,
decorated with vases of fresh flowers, Giving Voice goody bags and chocolates!
Each of the judges also had a record sheet to score each of the children’s jokes to
help them remember when they were choosing the winner!
My dad made calendars for each of the judges with facts about SLT on each month and some fab photos that he has taken himself.
All of the children were brilliant and so enthusiastic. The
rest of the school enjoyed watching and it was a really lovely afternoon.
Harry Gration talked about how welcome we’d made him feel
and how much he enjoyed the tour of the school before the competition began.
Before the winner was announced Chris (Head Teacher) said Thank
You to me for bringing Voice Box to school and Harry Gration presented me with
a beautiful bouquet of flowers! I thought this was very sweet and the flowers
are still looking lovely now.
The winning joke was brilliant and performed with enthusiasm
(and props!) I submitted this to RCSLT earlier in the week and wish him lots of
luck in making it to the Grand Final at Westminster.
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| Tilly and Tom enjoyed meeting the judges! Judges L to R: Trevor Frost, Michael Harvey, Richard Burgon MP, Harry Gration |
Following the event there has been a lot of Twitter activity
including from the judges. Harry Gration also mentioned the school on BBC Look
North that night which was very exciting for us all!
Laura posted on Facebook that night and mentioned that
Speech and Language Therapy Transforms Lives! I thought this was lovely and
every mention helps to get the message out even further.
I love how much of a team effort it has been and it would
not have been possible without the enthusiasm of the head teacher and SENCO
Laura. The children have loved it and are still telling jokes. It’s brilliant
how it has got everyone communicating in such a positive way.
One of the teachers made a fab video slide show and I love how
Tilly and Tom even made an appearance!
We are hosting the Leeds final on Friday 11th
December and are looking forward to doing it all again! It’s not too late to
get your school involved – my niece’s school did their whole Voice Box
competition in a day so it doesn’t have to take a lot of planning. Further
details can be found on the RCSLT Giving Voice website.
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