28 Aug 2019
Punchbowl Boys’ High School’s Abdulah Sediqui was crowned as the annual Stand Tall Speak Out champion for 2019 – a first for the school
Stand Tall Speak Out - Sydney South West’s premier slam poetry competition for school children started in 2014 and have been successfully delivered to Christian, Muslim and Jewish schools all over Sydney in an effort to promote multiculturalism
The event saw the Year 10 student taking out the top prize over students from other schools in the region including Malek Fahd Islamic School and Auburn Girls’ High School.
Sediqui, who performed a piece about the impact of war, was ecstatic about the win but admitted that he was surprised.
“I could not believe it. The rest of the other competitors were just so good. This win just makes me want to be even better,” Sediqui said.
Sediqui’s English teacher, Mr. Francis Floresca, said that he knew something special was about to happen moments before his student took the stage as the final performer.
“I saw him making adjustments to his poem literally seconds before coming,” said Floresca, “It’s a testament to his dedication to the drafting process.”
Jihad Yassine, also from Punchbowl Boys’ High School, finished in second place with a heartbreaking poem about his late grandmother’s struggle with cancer.
The LMA program has now been running at Punchbowl Boys’ High School for three years and is one of the school’s English Faculty’s most dynamic collaborative initiatives with external providers.