Beatrice, 12, was one of nine children who spoke at the House of Commons as part of our Power of Speech event in June. She shares her thoughts on the day:

I woke up bright and early and I couldn’t believe that this was the day I was going to be speaking in the House of Commons. A couple of weeks ago my older sister Hatty (14) and I made a 3 minute video on my favourite hobby - hockey - and this is how I won the chance to go down to London for the day.

In my video I gave five humorous top tips for hockey, one of the tips was “always take food”. My sister filmed and edited it and I was really pleased with the result. It was quite like a YouTube clip - funny and a bit crazy.

So nine graduates including myself had their videos selected and won a place to go and speak at AVUK's Power of Speech day which was held in the Houses of Parliament.

We made our way down to London by train from Peterborough and I felt a bit nervous but I knew my speech off by heart so I was feeling quite confident too. We arrived at Kings Cross and I was really excited and ready to go. We met a few interesting characters on the tube who chatted to us and asked us where we were going. I felt very much like a VIP!

When we went through security at the Houses of Parliament I felt a bit under pressure but still felt really excited and a little bit nervous. By the time we actually got into the House of Commons I felt my nerves really kicking in but couldn’t help being really amazed by the building itself which was really enormous and had lots of beautiful chandeliers and soldiers around. It felt very grand.

We waited for a while until we were allowed in to the room which I was going to be presenting in. Lots of old AV K friends appeared and congratulated me on my video and wished me luck. We finally went in to our room, the Terrace Pavilion, and had a buffet lunch which we ate on the terrace overlooking a breathtaking view of the London Eye and the River Thames. I nearly knocked a glass into the river which made me laugh!

We finally sat down and the ceremony began and before I knew it it was my turn to speak. I felt really scared as I walked up to the podium, but as soon as I started speaking I relaxed and really enjoyed delivering it to an audience of 100+ people. My speech was about YouTube and how it gives individual people a voice to express their emotions.

After a few more speeches, the formal presentations were over and all of the speakers had their pictures taken. I also then won a prize for the best speech in my age category. So more pictures! I felt so relieved and happy that I was able to deliver the speech without any problems. It all felt very surreal.

As we travelled home I knew that I would never forget this day - it was very special and one of the best days of my life. Thank you AVUK.