Historical information

From 1988 to 2021, Legacy held a public speaking contest for young secondary school students. It was initially called the Junior Plain English Speaking Award (JPESA) and later called Legacy Junior Public Speaking Award (LJPSA). Schools were eligible to send along up to 4 representatives to compete in a preliminary round. Participants gave a four minute prepared speech and a two minute impromptu response to a topic. In 1993 the topic was "Music - a distraction to study".
President John Stevenson is shown on the far left of the photo with John Straney of the Norwich Group, congratulating the winner, Susie Dowling of Strathmore Secondary College and the runner up, Zayne D'Crus of Mazenod College. The guest speaker in 1993 was the Herald Sun Journalist Keith Dunstan.
The following was taken from a programme in 1996: "The Award aim is to promote enhanced oral communication skills for 12-14 year old students and to help young people appreciate the ideals of Legacy - voluntary service, caring and comradeship - and the need for remembrance. It began in 1988 in the Melbourne area with the support of the Ministry of Education and The Plain English Foundation.
Entries have grown from 24 in the 1988 competition to over 300 in schools across the Stat, plus greater numbers participating in the process of selecting four contestants from each school. In 1995, a successful Interstate Championship was held with contestants from Victoria, New South Wales and Queensland. On 11 November 1996 the first National final was held with contestants from six states."

Significance

A record of a Junior Plain Speaking contest that was run by Legacy from 1988 to the 1990s.

Physical description

Black and white photo x 4 of Junior Plain Speaking contest in 1993 and white paper label and an article in the Answer.