Extempore is the art of public speaking that is carried out without preparation or forethought. It puts to test one’s ability to think on the spot and also their spontaneity. Oral communication fulfills a number of general and discipline-specific academic functions. Students need to speak well in their personal lives, future workplaces and social interactions. Extempore is one such method which assists the students not only in thinking on their own but also in voicing their creative ideas with precision. To imbibe a true spirit of learning in Stafordians and to enhance the communication skills in them, an Inter House Extempore Competition, was held at Staford School on the 8th and 9th September, 2015 during the zero period.
The speakers were the students from the classes IV, V, VI and VII. The students were asked to pick up chits for the topics. The topics in the competition were associated with varied subjects such as current issues, spoken English, Science, Social Studies and Computers. There were two rounds in total. The first round or the preliminary round was conducted on 8th September and had two students from each house per class, which means a total of 8 students participated from each class. The second round or the final round had four students from each class who qualified the preliminary round. It was held on 9th September. Each participant got one minute to think over the topic. The first warning bell indicated the end of this first minute. All the participants got another one minute to speak on the given topic only in English. The second warning bell indicated the end of time. The time keeper for the competition was Mr. Nirbhay.
The two judges Ms. Vijaya Kumar, Principal of Staford School and Ms. Rizwan Fatima, Pre-Primary Coordinator did the judgement on the basis of content, relevance to the topic, confidence, clarity of speech, time management, use of language and grammar, presence of mind and body language.
Sapphire House emerged the winner of the competition which was followed by Emerald and Garnet Houses at the second and third position respectively. The result of the competition was:
| S.No | Class | Name of the winner | Topic given for extempore |
| 1 | IV A | Rida Fatima | Foods of different states of India |
| 2 | IV B | Rayan Khan,
Fazilat Zehra |
Importance of Computers in our lives
Dresses of different states of India |
| 3 | V A | Syed Mohd. Emaad,
Adarsh Jaiswal |
Why is it important to save water?
Why is balanced diet needed for proper growth? |
| 4 | VI A | Zainul Abidin Naqvi | My favourite national leader |
| 5 | VII A | Ansh Mishra | Gender inequality in Indian society |
This activity was intended to give an opportunity to the students to shake off their diffidence and to build up their self-confidence.