TWO students from Tavistock College last week beat off stiff competition at the finals of the Japanese National Speech Contest. Holly Harrison, year 9, put in a grand performance at the Japanese Embassy to win the Key Stage 3 section, with Jenny Eden, year 9, placed runner-up. The panel of judges praised Holly for her polished performance in front of so many people in a tension- filled environment. Crispin Chambers, head of Japanese, said: 'We've been preparing the girls with extra sessions for the last six weeks once their initial taped speeches had got them through the opening round, so the work has paid off.' Dr Lid King, the national director of languages, said how impressed he was that Tavistock College was turning out such gifted and confident linguists in Japanese at such a young age.
