Students from as far away as Dubbo, Albury and Deniliquin were there to compete at the Riverina and Western NSW final, and whilst it was Beth Blanch from Dubbo South Public School who took out first place, Lizzie was the only student to receive a highly commended certificate.

“The level of maturity of these year three and four students was amazing,” said Lizzie’s mother Rebecca Bragg, and praised Cootamundra Public School for encouraging public speaking from a young age.

Lizzie was chosen to represent our region after winning a Riverina local final of the multicultural perspectives public speaking competition in June.

The competition requires Year Three and Four students to do a three-minute prepared speech, and then a one-minute impromptu speech on a surprise topic for which they are given just five minutes to prepare.

The impromptu topic was ‘win or lose’ and Lizzie chose to speak about the plight of orangutans, an issue she’s very passionate about.

“I think people did agree because they nodded their heads when I said to stop buying palm oil products,” said Lizzie, displaying enough general knowledge to convince an audience of adults to agree with her despite being just nine years old.

Lizzie’s prepared speech was titled ‘every family has a story’, and her family’s stories include a great-great-grandfather who was a jiu jitsu world champion, and a grandmother who survived a WWII prison camp in China.

“Her gran was there yesterday to watch her, so that was special,” said Rebecca, who was also there for support.

“I was very nervous but Lizzie wasn’t,” laughed Rebecca, “I was very happy for her.”

“It’s a great skill to be able to voice your opinion with confidence in front of people.”