Harry Morrissey and Toby Gough, who are both 11 and are both Encore Speech and Drama Studio students taught by principal Kristie Thorne, have competed in numerous eisteddfods this year, including Gulgong, Forbes, the Northern Beaches and Cowra.

Toby has presented more than 12 solo items at most eisteddfods, which takes a lot of work and dedication, according to Mrs Thorne.

At Gulgong, he won the junior scholarship, the Henry Lawson Championship, the junior speech scholarship, the best overall speech and drama award, the Drama Daze best duologue and Drama Daze best junior monologue.

He won the 12 years pointscore and the Noel Hopkins best overall humorous verse at Cowra and won the Barbara Cowled Trophy for best overall speech performer 10 to 14 years old at Forbes.

“Harry has also had fantastic results and works for hours every week practising his pieces and rehearsing,” Mrs Thorne said.

“He shows great talent in acting and loves performing humorous pieces.”

Harry won the Drama Daze best duologue at Gulgong, was second in the junior championship at Cowra and tackled the Sydney competition and was right among the prizewinners on the Northern Beaches.

”He managed to win the $300 scholarship for the Gwen Jones Memorial Award for outstanding talent overall,” Mrs Thorne said.

“This is an amazing result, especially against tough Sydney competition.”

At the Royal Bathurst Show, Harry’s own poem, All Cats And Animals, won the overall best own composition at the show, earning him a major prizewinner banner for his efforts.

Mrs Thorne said the two young performers were looking forward to more competitions over the next few weeks at Wellington, Orange, the Central Coast, Penrith and Bathurst.

“They are very talented in the field and work extremely hard,” she said.

“I can't wait to see what the future holds for these two boys.”