Empowering Leadership Through Public Speaking: Year 10 Community Services & SRC Year 7-12 Workshop

Throughout the interactive workshop, participants immersed themselves in a range of activities designed to boost their speaking ability, critical thinking, and teamwork. These sessions not only helped improve communication techniques but also focused on developing a deeper understanding of empathy and resilience.

Over the course of a five-session series, we proudly trained 125 student leaders in our Secondary School. This workshop went beyond simply practising public speaking – it offered students the opportunity to step outside their comfort zones, build confidence in self-expression, and develop essential leadership skills. Through carefully designed sessions focused on communication and presentation, and by working in small, collaborative groups, participants refined their abilities in a supportive environment. These experiences have equipped them to take on meaningful leadership roles both within the school and in the broader community.

A special thank you to Speaking Schools Australasia for their invaluable expertise, guidance, and engaging sessions. Most importantly, we applaud our students for their enthusiasm, dedication, and willingness to step up and grow as leaders.

We look forward to seeing these newly developed skills shine through in school events, assemblies, and leadership initiatives — and beyond, Insha’Allah!

Student reflections:

“I really enjoyed this public speaking workshop and I would love to do it again! I learnt many new things and received great feedback which has genuinely helped me a lot. Before I came, I was nervous and shy and I had no idea how I was gonna publicly speak in front everyone. After this workshop I feel much more confident doing it!” Aleezah, Year 10

“This workshop helped be build my confidence and improve my eye contact, and voice projection when presenting.”  Laila, Year 10

“This workshop was amazing and it really helped me. I was weak in my eye contact and posture before, but after the lessons and speech I was told it was my strength. I will continue to improve and overall, I enjoyed.” Jannat, Year 9

“I really enjoyed this workshop and I feel that I have gained many more useful skills for public speaking. This workshop taught me how to appear more confident when speaking in front of a group of people, as well as different techniques to use to appear more engaging. I really enjoyed this experience and gained many new useful skills that would definitely be beneficial for when I do public speaking in the future.” Namrah, Year 12

“I have learnt what body language to use to seem more confident while saying a speech. This workshop helped me improve my posture and voice projection while doing a speech. I also learn how to make a speech more interesting. My highlight was working together with my group and doing the icebreaker.” Fatimah, Year 9

“The workshop really helped me understand how public speaking isn’t just about getting up on a stage and reading off a script, there’s a lot more that goes into it. Body language, expressions, and even the content itself is important when you present a speech! I’m grateful for this workshop and hope to be able to implement the skills I’ve learned.” Mohaned, Year 9

“I feel like this public speaking workshop helped me improve my confidence in public speaking and I really enjoyed it.” Safwan, Year 8 

“I found this workshop very beneficial and it helped my public speaking improve in all different ways. I feel more confident to speak in front of an audience as was before I was very shy to speak. Overall, I really enjoyed this whole experience and should love to do it again.” Howra, Year 7

“The workshop was great. It was not boring. They made it easy and simple. The feedback from the coaches was useful. And the activities gave us a chance to test what we learnt.”  Abdurrahman, Year 7

 “I think that this public speaking workshop really help me build confidence and skills in my public speaking skills, and the coaches taught us how to speak and hook listeners with our speeches, which I found to be quite effective. Overall, I think this program helped me build my confidence and skills”. Muneeb, Year 8

“I really enjoyed the workshop. I feel like I really improved my speaking skills. It was engaging because we had to brainstorm our ideas and present them to everyone. I think that now I’m much better at bringing emotions to my speech”. Rushda, Year 8

“As a student struggling with public speaking, the Public Speaking Workshop helped me project my voice and ideas more clearly. The techniques I learnt from this workshop have enabled me to speak more confidently and more adequately. The coaches have made the experience more fun and enjoyable for us, thank you so much for organising this event!!”  Ramira, Year 9 

“I found the workshop today to be extremely beneficial. The instructors were extremely nice and understanding, and I feel my fear of public speaking has decreased. I loved how they let us practice with microphones and stages, instead of us only being able to use those facilities on the actual day. I also enjoyed how everyone got a few turns at speaking and the activities to write were really beneficial for our speaking. Thank you, Ms Noori,”. Amaya, Year 8