Six Penola High School Year 11 English students recently entered the Penola Lions Youth of the Year competition, a public speaking competition for young people.

Penola High School English teacher Chloe Holmes helped students prepare in her classes during the first four weeks of the term leading up to the event.

Topics ranged from sport to the effects of social media on mental health and the benefits of country life.

Penola High School students Ryan, Olivia, Matthew, Mason, Ozzy and Lochy participated.

The winners were Lochy and Olivia for their presentations and Ozzy, who was the overall winner of the Lions’ Award.

Olivia was also the overall winner of the Leos’ award.

However, winners from Ms Holmes’ class had conflicting commitments so could not attend the district finals in Mount Gambier.

The Lions Youth of the Year involves a formal application, interviews, preparing and presenting speeches and answering two on-the-spot impromptu questions.

Ms Holmes said all the students performed well and she was proud of their efforts.

“I only started at the school this year and I have only been teaching them for a short time but it was really good to see them get into it, get out there and give it a go,” Ms Holmes said.

“I think they did a really good job, considering quite a few of them had never done any kind of public speaking before, I was very impressed.”