Victorian secondary school teachers don't have an easy job. Not only do they have to keep dozens of young minds engaged and learning, but they have to do it within a state learning structure. 

This structure is created by the "Victorian Essential Learning Standards" (VELS). Victorian teachers make sure their students learn all the skills it details. Fortunately, Rostrum can help students learn many of those components within the English discipline’s "Speaking and Listening" criteria, and the Communication and Thinking Processes interdisciplinary domains.

 The VCE and VCAL English courses also contain compulsory oral communication skills to be learnt, and tasks to be completed. Similarly the HSC and IB Diploma require the demonstration of oral skills, and it is an optional component of ACE. Again, we can help.

Some students find entering and practicing for competitions greatly aids their learning. We can help students train for any of the youth speaking competitions, including the different age-specific categories of the Rostrum Voice of Youth. The local heats for this competition are held in March each year.

The 2007 Mildura Young Citizen of the Year, Geoffrey Pascoe, was a member of the Mildura Rostrum club for a number of years while attending local secondary schools. He used the club to significantly improve his speaking abilities, eventually becoming a state winner and national finalist of many speaking competitions. In the everyday world, his improved vocal communication ability has helped him achieve in many other areas.