Putney High School student wins public speaking prize

Chrystall Carter was Legal Adviser to the Trust for nine years, and then Deputy Legal Secretary, until her sudden and untimely death in 1999.

The Chrystall Prize for Public Speaking competition was set up in her memory by her husband Richard, to mark her commitment to the girls in GDST schools, her pleasure in their success, and her belief in the power of persuasive argument.

Year 11 students speak for up to seven minutes on their allocated topic. This is followed by questions from the audience for up to three minutes.

The 2016 competition final was held at Notting Hill & Ealing High School in March. The judges were Sarah Montague (Presenter, Today programme, BBC Radio 4), Rageh Omaar (ITV News International Affairs Editor) and Lorraine Heggessey (Chair of the Grierson Trust, former Controller of BBC 1 and Founder of Boom Pictures).

The winner was Imaan Ahmad, 15, from Putney High School, who spoke on the topic of ‘Secret surveillance – necessary evil or just plain evil?’

Imaan said ‘It was very hard work writing the speech and I have learned a great deal. The cherry on top of the cake was that I came in first place.’