The competition is heating up as youngsters head to the finals of a public speaking competition.

The semi-final of the district Rotary’s Youth Speaks competition was recently held at Beaminster School and hosted by the Brit Valley Club. Teams from Beaminster, the Sir John Colfox Academy and the Gryphon and Leweston schools, Sherborne, competed for a place in the final to be held at the end of the month.

Unfortunately, two of the main speakers had to withdraw from their teams due to illness, with Gryphon School finally scratching from the competition. Colfox managed to enlist a ‘brilliant’ replacement at the last minute. Teams chose their own subject matter and an enthusiastic audience was entertained with topics ranging from Great Expectations, The Power of Procrastination, Complacency and How Do You Take Your Tea? After a well-fought competition the judges could not separate the teams from Beaminster and the A team from Colfox and so awarded joint first honours. This is the first time there has been a draw in the competition. Both teams will now go on to the final in Cheddar.

There was triumph all round for Beaminster School’s senior team; the best speaker on the night was the school’s Alfie Webb, who put together an ‘excellent and amusing’ presentation. The team, made up of Alfie, Aimee Satur and Ellen Ashley, performed well, particularly as all three of them were also performing in the school production of Grease.

Colfox speaker Jade Farrington was only brought into the team two days before the competition and gave her own excellent speech on procrastination.

Mark Chutter, head of English and drama at Beaminster School and senior team coach, said: "I am delighted that the team performed so well. The key now is to use the feedback from the judges and to improve even further for the next round - congratulations team Beaminster.”

The district final will take place on Saturday at The Kings of Wessex Academy, Cheddar.