The Church of God (Holiness) was the venue of a capacity audience on Thursday November 15th, as five of the six primary schools on the island met to compete for the 2018 Teacher Wenham Choral Speaking prizes.
The competition, with one intriguing theme, “Music”, held the audience spellbound as team after team ascended the stage to render their pieces of prose on the benefits of music and its evolution in recent decades.
Chairperson for the night was Business Development Manager, Ms. Quincia Gumbs. The Invocation was offered by former Principal, Mrs. Tracelyn Hamilton, and Tr. Jerica Crawford presented a brief history of the Teacher Wenham Memorial Club which spearheads the competition.
If one had never attended this competitive event before (now in its 3rd year), it would be found quite difficult not to pay keen attention to focusing on the actions of the guiding conductor and on the flowing spontaneity of the effervescent reciting teams.
The conductor, invariably a teacher standing in front of her respective school team, would exclusively communicate with the team by versatile hand signs and defined lip movements. The team would be reading those lips and hands, and with a high degree of precision, and with the expectation of every succeeding line, they would simultaneously make their recitations in perfect unison with a dramatic sort of expression, through a tone of exuberance at times, and a declining repose on occasion.
The conductors, by the way, were in for just as much competition as the teams. The Orealia Kelly Primary School was conducted by Krystie Webster ; Valley Primary by Clarissa Richardson; the Alwyn Allison Richardson Primary by Krystal Webster, while the Vivien Vanterpool Primary was led by Itasha Webster, and Tr. Joanne Snaggs conducted Adrian T. Hazell. Absent this year was the Morris Vanterpool Primary School.
Looking back into history, the winning team of the 2016 competition was the Adrian T. Hazell Primary, conducted by Tr. Joanne Snaggs. Second place was won by the Morris Vanterpool Primary, while the Vivien Vanterpool Primary took the third place position. That year, the best conductor honor was awarded to Tr. Itasha Webster of the Vivien Vanterpool Primary. There was no competition in 2017 due to disruptions caused by the infamous Hurricane Irma.
By the end of Thursday night’s event, however, this year’s winners were as follows: In first place Adrian T. Hazell Primary, in second place Alwyn Allison Richardson Primary, followed by Orealia Kelly Primary in third position. The best conductor / teacher was Ms. Krystie Webster of the Orealia Kelly School. Trophies were awarded to first, second and third place winning teams, while medals were presented to each winning team member. The best conductor was awarded with a beautiful plaque.
Judges for this year’s event included Ms. Carla Harris, Reverend Wycherley Gumbs, Mr. Keith Stone Greaves and Mrs. Rosena Brooks.
The Teacher Wenham Choral Speaking Competition was founded by the Teacher Wenham Memorial Club. A brief background of the Club was presented by Tr. Jerica Crawford, follows:
“On the 4th of November 1970 at the invitation of Mr. Richard Fahie, a group of men who were former pupils of the old Valley Boys’ School, under the Headmastership of the late George Reginald Austin Wenham, a native of Montserrat, met at the said school. The meeting took the form of a discussion relating to the life and work of their beloved Headmaster.
“The men, after much thought and deliberation, decided that a memorial should be set up in honour of this great man, who, because of his zeal, example and enthusiasm in fostering the things that meant for good in the world, had been an inspiration to them – making them better men than they otherwise would have been.
“And because their Headmaster, the late Teacher Wenham, did so much for them educationally and ethically, they felt that any monument, set up in his memory, should be something which would be of service to the young people who were so dear to his heart during his life-time, should be something that would bring ultimate benefit to the island as a whole.
“As a result, the Teacher Wenham Memorial Club came to birth under the motto “To Serve – To Uplift” and dedicated to the cause of education and other ethical pursuits.”
The very first Teacher Wenham Choral Speaking Contest took place in 2015. That year, the first place winners were the Adrian T. Hazell Primary tied with the Morris Vanterpool Primary. Second place went to Alwyn A. Richardson Primary, while third place was awarded to Valley Primary. The best conductor then was Tr. Ayisha Olivacce of the Orealia Kelly Primary.
The cheers and laughter at this year’s competition were an indication that the entire audience was overwhelmingly happy with the renditions by the students. Their performances in expressing the value and importance of music, as they saw it, were extremely admirable. According to them: “We all need music in our lives…it just simply would’t be life… without it”.
