LITTLE Leo Jones from Llangors Church in Wales School regularly has his classmates in stitches when he tells them jokes in the playground.
And now, it’s official, the eight-year-old really is a wag as he has won the national prize in the Royal College of Speech and Language Therapists’ annual joke-telling competition.
Leo collected his Voice Box award in the national finals held at the Pierhead Building in Cardiff Bay on Wednesday, April 3.
Altogether more than 700 schoolchildren aged between five and 11 years old entered the RCSLT’s competition with just 10 primary and special school pupils selected to compete in the final.
Leo impressed the judges with this joke: “An inflatable boy went to an inflatable school with an inflatable headmaster. One day the inflatable boy went running around the whole school with a drawing pin going ‘phst, phst, phst’ and popping everything he could find. The inflatable headmaster called the inflatable boy to the office and said: ‘I’m very disappointed in you. You’ve let me down; you’ve let yourself down and you’ve left the whole school down’.”
Dr Alison Stroud, head of Wales for the Royal College of Speech and Language Therapists, said: “Congratulations to all of the finalists, who did a brilliant job at telling their jokes and certainly made us laugh. It was a tough decision, as everyone was fantastic, but Leo really demonstrated how important good communication skills are and we would like to thank all of the schools who participated in this year’s Voice Box contest.”
Minister for Education Kirsty Williams AM, who gave a short keynote speech, said: “Supporting children to develop their speech and language skills helps them to become more receptive to learning, handle social situations and can result in better behaviour.
“It was fantastic to meet this year’s Voice Box finalists and I’m sure we have some future comedians in our midst.”