Derry school pupil to join panel of judges at prestigious comedy awards in Belfast

St Mary’s college pupil Molly Bradley is to join the panel of judges at the 2017 Voice Box Awards on Monday 5th June as twenty budding comedians compete at the grand final of the Voice Box Awards at Belfast City Hall to raise awareness of the importance of good communication skills.

The Voice Box Awards is a school joke-telling contest run by the Royal College of Speech and Language Therapists (RCSLT) to highlight the crucial role that speech and language development plays in school life, in a fun and engaging way.

Approximately seven per cent of children in Northern Ireland (or two children in every class of thirty) start school with a developmental language disorder, and a further 2.34% of children start school with a language disorder linked to or co-occurring with another condition such as learning disability, cerebral palsy, and autism spectrum disorder. In areas of social deprivation, speech and language difficulties can occur in above 50% of children.

Over 3,500 competitors, many of whom have never needed a speech and language therapist, have already participated in local heats. The 20 funniest pupils have been selected to compete in the live grand final on Monday 5 June 2017.

Alison McCullough MBE, Head of RCLST Northern Ireland Office said: “This is the fifth Voice Box final, and each year we have been delighted as the numbers of schools, families and speech and language therapists, getting involved, has increased. This event provides an exciting opportunity to engage with elected representatives and promote the importance of speech and language activities within school.

“We are also working with politicians, policy makers and other partners to make society more aware of the impact that a communication difficulty can make to educational attainment, employment and mental health and wellbeing.”

Finalists have been chosen from primary and post primary schools from across Northern Ireland. At the June final they will have the opportunity to go head to head with other pupils to become the Northern Ireland Voice Box Champion.

The 2016 Voice Box Champion Lily Barlow, from Glencraig Integrated in Holywood, Co Down, won last year’s final for her joke about the inflatable school:

“An inflatable boy went to an inflatable school, with inflatable pupils and inflatable staff.

“One day he ran amok with a drawing pin. Pssssst! Psssssst! Pssssst! Psssssst!

“The deflated principal called him into her study and said, ‘you’ve let me down, you’ve let yourself down and you’ve let EVERYONE down’!”

To win the top prize, pupils will have to impress the Voice Box panel of judges, Anne Gamble, Country representative RCSLT; June Wilkinson, Head of Children and Young People's Strategy Team, Department of Education; and St Mary’s college pupil Molly Bradley, who has a cochlear implant.

Learn more about the speech and language therapy profession by visiting wwww.rcslt.org .