Recently I gave a session to a group of feisty 12-year olds (incl Crawf Minima) on the general subject of Public Speaking.

I hit upon a truly magnificent formula, drawing on the idea that it’s always good to take along a ‘thing’ to a talk to illustrate the point and bring some extra visual drama.

In this case I produced a couple of tubes of Smarties, unaware that they have been given ‘natural colours’ because of insane ‘health’ concerns over artificial colourings and so now look rather horrid.

Still, the effect of rattling these drab earthenware-coloured Smarties in front of the class was impressive. Their eyes popped out. This was … DIFFERENT.

The deal, I said, was as follows. I would give a short talk illustrating different key ideas for Public Speaking technique (Message, Structure, Story – MSS) and associated ideas such as Lists, Questions, Contrast, Signposts, Tone and so on.

They then would be shown some YouTube clips of famous speeches (Reagan and Obama and, of course, Mars Attacks). Then the race would be on. Anyone spotting any of my techniques being used in these real speeches would get a Smartie.

The result was stunning concentration and focus. The children hung on every word of the talk and then came out with all sorts of spot-onsharp  examples of speech techniques from the vids. Smarties all round.

I started my presentation by saying that you never ever start a presentation by apologising or under-selling your skill, as many children and grown-ups alike seem to do in the mistaken belief that dippy confessional frankness ("I’m sure this isn’t going to be interesting as I’m not good at public speaking, but I hope you like it anyway!") is somehow endearing.

It’s not endearing. In fact it’s basically an insult to the audience.

If you don’t think you’re good enough to talk to me, why are you talking? Shut up! Don’t tell me that I’m wasting my time listening to a jerk!

This stern point was duly internalised, to the point of winning cheap Smarties. "President Obama did not start by apologising for being a bad speaker."

All in all, a sensation and much appreciated by the throng. With more time it would be good to work with the children on their own presentation skills, but in an hour you can do only so much.

These presentation skills and the intellectual discipline drawn from learning how to structure and present arguments and facts should be mainstreamed in all schools. They are vital tools for being effective and persuasive, whatever job you end up getting.

No-one should be leaving school to go on into life without being able to give a good confident short presentation.

Any school wanting some of this magic knows what to do.