Speech – 185 candidates; 114 passed – 62 per cent

The number of satisfactory speech reports in this exam was encouraging,but markers were surprised by the dearth of good, straightforward intros.

The speaker was an Oxdown councillor, chairman of the council’s strategicservices and also of a working party formed to update the Jonson Theatre -built in 1923, named after the playwright Ben Jonson and now in deepfinancial trouble.

“A dream of a plan for a new arts centre”, costing £2.3million and basedon the theatre, had been devised by the working party but a £1.65million bidfor lottery money was swiftly rejected.

The candidates’ brief had told them all this had been reported in theirnewspaper previously, so they were looking for something new that would beworth the intro. What stood out, fairly obviously, was the announcement of aproposal to form a charitable trust. This would have a better chance thanthe council to raise funds, with grants, business sponsorship and “communityand council working together”.

Sadly, only a handful of reporters were able to produce a bright introout of a charitable trust. Most went around in circles, recapping on thelottery bid failure or other problems. Too many did not involve the trustuntil half way through their story. Two wrote 300-word reports withoutmentioning the trust at all.

The speaker expressed great confidence that the working party’s proposalfor a charitable trust would be approved at the next meeting of the council.This, however, did not give some candidates a licence to write as though itwere a fait accompli.

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