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Should Halloween be banned? by Mia-Grace Whitaker

What is Halloween to you? For most, the 31 st of October is a festive gathering, a fun night out, or even a day for free treats, but has it ever occurred to you what we are celebrating? Derived from the celts, Halloween is a day marking the beginning of the season of cold, darkness and decay. In order to celebrate it, an annual sacrifice would be made to prevent an entire year of catastrophes, these sacrifices were often 67% of the village’s children!  The fancy costumes we wear were once animal carcasses, skin and heads, and the innocent jack o’ lanterns we carve were used as a symbol of a fateful deal with the devil. Naturally, it became associated with human death and was used as means to get away with things. Despite this, Halloween is quite simply one of many ‘memento mori’ traditions designed to make death just a little bit more fun and provide an age-appropriate hint to children about an inescapable fact of life, which is that life ends. Wrong. By doing this, death re...
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Zoos by Jaden Shorrock

Today I want to talk to you about zoos and their purpose.  Should animals be kept in zoos?  What would happen to them if they were left in the wild?  There are people in foreign countries who kill these wild animals for their skins, fur and bones.  Some are used for medicines!  This is cruel.  There are only around 2,500 Bengal tigers left in the wild.  The Javan rhino is one of the most endangered species of animal, with only 40-60 of them left.  The pagolin has been on the Red list since 2014 and is the most trafficked animal in the world!  We need to support all the zoos in the world to make sure these animals have the chance to live a good life.  Why would you not want to save the wild animals?  Why would anyone not want to see these lovely animals in a safe environment?  I feel we should support all our zoos and continue to keep these places alive to protect the animals.  We have a duty to give all animals a cha...
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Racism in the UK by Tia Martin

Stop!  Think about what the world would be like if everyone was equal.  Name one thing that wouldn't exist.  One thing I thought of is racism.  Racism is what I am here to talk to you about today. What is racism?  Well, by the end of this speech, I hope you have a greater understanding of what racism is.  I asked a few people what they thought racism is, and I have a favourite answer.  It is this:  "Racism is discrimination directed against a person or people depending on their race or ethnicity". In 2013/2014 there were 14,571 'racist incidents' recorded by the police in England and Wales.  On average, that's about 130 incidents per day!  But historical events have shown us that racism isn't something new.  Racism has always been a part of this world.  In the 1960s Martin Luther King peacefully protested for what is right.  Many people admired him for this, including me.  And everyone knows the story of Rosa Park...
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Warrior by Daniel Spragg

Maybe you are at the darkest point of your life; you're ready to quit; you're ready to give up.  I've got one word for you.  Warrior.  Yeah, warrior.  The only thing that is stopping you from being your best is fear.  Let me tell you this.  Fear is not real.  The only place fear can exist is in our thoughts of the future.  It's a resident of our imagination making us fear things that may never exist.  Fear is a choice.   Only the brave souls that risk going too far can possibly find out how far they can go.  Everyone on this planet should have a dream of what they want to accomplish in life.  And I want that dream to be so clear, that when you wake up in the morning, all you have to do is step into that dream.  But what people don't realise is that the first step of accomplishing your goal is that you have to believe it's possible.  You can do it.  Where you are is temporary.  You will not be there...
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Ignoring The Inevitable

Imagine a world where everybody could see what was happening and change the disastrous future.   What if you could learn the obvious fate and change it for the better? Did You know that every second a football field of rain forest is lost - seven of them by time you’ve read this? Well now you do. You could donate, reach your fingers to the keyboard and select the amount, saving trees, animals, and plants ,supporting the villages around them. But you just don’t care. We all must not do so. We all must change and help. Another example of ignoring the inevitable is cutting down trees for Biomass energy, conservable, that can be used again.   What’s the problem? The dirty energy that is needed for this, and the energy that   is needed when the trees are not in full supply. The fauna that evacuates from their homes, having to leave their nests that are doomed to fall from a great height, cracking the eggs with a squelch and the offspring falling down wi...
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Being a Teenager is Hard

When I was younger, I was so excited to grow up.  Sleepovers, late night walks, parties, secondary school, shopping trips, pool parties.  But I soon realised that life isn't actually like High School Musical .  Homework, drama, revision, relationships, exams, stress.  Being a teenager is hard.  Our generation don't make it easy for each other.  Like lions, they go for the weaker ones, shred them apart and eat them alive.  You can't be different.  You can't be too pale, too dark, too short, too tall, too skinny, too fat, too quiet, too loud.  You have to have the perfect face, the body of a Kardashian, expensive clothes, the latest phone.  Why are we hunting our own kind?  Being a teenager is hard.  8am-3pm are the worst hours of the day.  You can't wear what you want, talk when you want, go to the toilet when you want.  When you walk through the doors at 8.30, you are no longer an individual - just another Fea...
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We Should Get Rid of School Uniform

I hate a lot of things about the world: people going on their phones why I'm trying to talk to them, slow walkers, homework.  But today I'm going to speak about something that all children and even parents will agree with.  We should get rid of school uniform.  If we could change anything about schools, it should 100% be the uniform.  Children wake up every morning dreading having to wear that irritating, uncomfortable white shirt shirt with the strangling collar yet again.  It's a pain in the neck (quite literally!).  Even parents hat the thought of school uniform.  Every year you have to rush around making sure your children have all the correct uniform ready and worry that you have forgotten something.  Not only that, but it costs a lot of money to buy uniform.  My parents spent hundreds of pounds for mine and my three siblings' uniforms this year.  Not everyone has the money to do that.  This money could have been better spe...
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