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 forced down on them. Teachers in private schools are not immune from this framework either.

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

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.

Rostrum Mildura offers English teachers in the Sunraysia area free trainers that will help teach speaking in the classroom (as we have done at St Josephs College), or at special speaking events (like those annually held by Ouyen SC and Trinity Lutheran College). We have also had a few teachers themselves join our club to improve their own skills. Any secondary school within an hour's drive of Mildura is welcome to make use of our services. Some of the results of our assistance actions can be found on our In the News page, and in this ABC Radio report.

We also offer an extra-curricular club that students can attend to improve their skills and receive individual attention. 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 our club for a number of years while attending local secondary schools. He used the club to improve his speaking abilities significantly, 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 many other things as well.