Challenge Guide
Question Time is a trade mark of the British Broadcasting Corporation
Schools Question Time Challenge Guide
Deadline: 9 January 2009 Don’t miss this exciting opportunity for 14 to 18 year olds to develop the political and communication skills they need to participate in society as active and informed citizens. Schools QUESTION TIME is a Political Literacy and Citizenship Life Skills initiative supported by Parliament’s Education Service, the Institute for Citizenship and the BBC. The Schools QUESTION TIME Challenge uses the format of the popular BBC QUESTION TIME programme as a springboard for engaging young people in democratic society and helping them to discuss issues that affect them, their communities and the wider world. Your students could win the chance to help produce a real edition of the BBC’s QUESTION TIME! Ten regional winners will also be selected to run a Schools QUESTION TIME event with professional help from Parliament’s Education Service and the BBC. Citizenship education support The Challenge supports the citizenship education agenda by allowing young people to play an active part in society as critically aware, informed citizens. The Challenge builds confidence, emphasising young people’s roles and responsibilities, and their right to question decision makers and hold them to account. It clearly demonstrates that young people, too, are stakeholders in society.
Schools QUESTION TIME resources Once again, the Institute for Citizenship, Parliament’s Education Service and the BBC are offering FREE downloadable resources with comprehensive teacher’s notes, lesson plans and activities. This year’s resources are: SQT Politics & Parliament Toolkit - a Political Literacy resource which explores the themes of Politics and Parliament and includes three in-depth lesson plans for Key Stage 3 and 4. SQT Communication Skills Toolkit – explores the characteristics of good debate and the importance of debate for informed citizenship. SQT Event Pack – to help secondary students explore opinion forming, communicating and debating, event planning and evaluation. You can download them from: www.schoolsquestiontime.org
Question Time is a trade mark of the British Broadcasting Corporation
These SQT resources have been created using QuarkXPress® software 1
Schools Question Time Challenge Guide
How to enter the Challenge Easy to enter Entering the Challenge this year is easy – all we’d like you to do is answer these questions: 1. Who would be on your ideal QUESTION TIME panel to discuss topical issues, and why? For this question, you should think about the following: > How many panellists? (QUESTION TIME usually has five.) You need to make sure your panel is representative of a wide range of views – but if there are too many opinions to be heard you may run out of time! > Try to choose interesting people for interesting reasons – just because Gordon Brown is Prime Minister, it doesn’t mean he would be the best panellist! (Panel members must be realistic eg. alive and not fictional characters). 2. What issues would you table for discussion during your ideal QUESTION TIME, and why? For this question, you should think about the following: > How many topics should you choose? You will have time for more than one, but too many will limit the quality of the discussion. > What should the topics cover? The main factors to consider when choosing questions are whether they represent issues of social, economic or political concern, and whether the questions contribute to the debate in a constructive
way. > How should the questions for debate be phrased? Be as focused as possible – very general questions don’t usually provide for a good discussion. 3. If your school is selected as one of the 10 Finalists, how would your group involve others in the school to make your SQT a whole school event? For this question, you should think about the following: > Ways of informing other pupils and involving them in your SQT event > Initiatives to involve your whole school (eg. a poster competition) What could I win? The 10 schools with the best entries will receive: > An exciting full day workshop focusing on Political Literacy and communication skills delivered by Parliament’s Education Service. All workshops focus on active learning and participation > An award to the value of £250 from the Institute for Citizenship to run a local Schools QUESTION TIME event. Please note that if you are a chosen Finalist, you will be running your Schools QUESTION TIME event between 16 March 2009 and 27 March 2009. Enter at: www.schoolsquestiontime.org
Question Time is a trade mark of the British Broadcasting Corporation
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Schools Question Time Challenge Guide
Judges will visit the local Schools QUESTION TIME events and then select four winning schools from across the UK. Two students from each of the winning schools will win the opportunity to help produce a real edition of the BBC’s QUESTION TIME with Institute for Citizenship President, David Dimbleby, and the regular QUESTION TIME production team.
Dates and stages
Judging criteria
9 January 2009: Deadline for Challenge entries The Schools QUESTION TIME Challenge closes at noon
Your school’s proposal will be judged in three categories:
29 January 2009: Announcement of 10 Finalists 22 February to 6 March 2009 Polical Literacy Day Visit and Communication skills workshops 10 Finalists only 16 to 27 March 2009: Schools QUESTION TIME events 10 Finalists only Early April: Announcement of four winning schools Early - Mid May: Two-day preparation event For eight students from the four winning schools, including attendance at BBC QUESTION TIME programme 9 July 2009: BBC QUESTION TIME broadcast The BBC QUESTION TIME edition produced with the help of the students will be filmed and broadcast in the usual slot at 10.35pm on BBC ONE.
Creativity Producing a proposal with the potential to be a stimulating televised event offering topicality, local, national & international relevance, and maximum diversity in terms of panel, topics, range of opinion and audience mix. Please note, you must suggest panellists who are realistic: i.e. they must be living at the time you submit your entry. Citizenship Evidence that your proposal meets the citizenship curriculum targets in the following categories: political literacy; moral, social & cultural understanding; and encouraging active citizenship/participation. Your entry should also demonstrate learning in the following areas: communication, inquiry & research, opinion-forming, democratic decision-making, and teamwork. Presentation & Planning A well presented proposal outlining an event which is realistic and achievable. You should also submit evidence that this will be a “whole-school” event involving students across the age-range of your school. This should provide for the inclusion of SQT in at least one whole school assembly; together with your own ideas: e.g. a whole-school poster competition.
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Schools Question Time Challenge Guide Schools QUESTION TIME Event The 10 Finalist events will be evaluated according to the criteria given below.
> How impartial and effective is the Chair in controlling all the various elements?
Before the event
> How much thought went into selecting the audience? How diverse is it?
> Is there evidence that a wide range of students from the whole school are participating in today’s event in some way?
> How involved is the audience in the debate?
> How broad is the range of opinions, views and experiences represented? Has anyone been deliberately excluded?
panel?
> How interesting and appropriate are the questions? How much do they challenge the authority of the panellists?
> How good is the communication between the event team and the rest of the school?
> Are topical issues being explored and do they include themes with local, national and international relevance and appeal?
> How good is the communication within the event team itself?
> How clearly are the panel and audience expressing their points of view?
> How broadly shared are leadership roles in the event team?
> Is good use being made of music/PA systems?
> How involved are the students (as opposed to teachers)?
> Taking all the elements together, is the event engaging, impartial, balanced and fair? Does it have a ‘buzz’ to it?
> Is there evidence of: > healthy debate around the school? > inclusiveness and wide-ranging participation? > tolerance and respect for differing values and opinions? > collective responsibility for topics raised? After the event (meeting with the students involved): > How democratically were the two school representatives chosen? > What problems were faced and overcome during the preparation for the event? How flexible and enterprising were the students in coping with the unexpected? > What would the students do differently if they were running the event again? > Overall, what have the students learned? The event > How predictable/unexpected is the selection of the panel? > How appropriate and balanced is the
Organisational and planning skills > How well organised is the event immediately before it begins? Is it calm and well planned? > How well briefed and prepared are the panel and chair? > Is the audience properly prepared? > How appropriate is the venue and how much thought has gone into it? > Is the timing disciplined to enable maximum inclusiveness? > Are the logistics (e.g. travel and hospitality) being handled well? > How well is the event realising the proposal? The school > Is there evidence of: > > > >
good speaking and listening? effective debate and focusing of opinions? organisational skills? inclusiveness?
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Schools Question Time Challenge Guide
Terms and conditions IMPORTANT – You must read and accept the terms and conditions before submitting your entry
1. By entering the Schools QUESTION TIME Challenge (the Challenge) you agree to be bound by these terms and conditions. 2. Entries for the Challenge will be accepted online at www.schoolsquestiontime.org 3. Entries may only be made by secondary schools located in England, Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland, the Channel Islands and the Isle of Man. 4. Only one entry per school will be accepted. 5. Only two pages of A4 (800 words) will be accepted in answer to the questions about how schools would run their Schools QUESTION TIME event. Please do not send film or audio material or any other supporting material. It cannot be included in the judging process and cannot be returned. 6. The information provided on the entry form must be the school’s’ own work and correct to the best of your knowledge. 7. By entering the Challenge you are providing a guarantee that, if you are successful, students and school facilities will be made available at each part of the process. Approval from the school Head Teacher is a requirement of entry. 8. By entering the Challenge you agree that any materials relating to your entry may be published for publicity purposes. 9. By entering the Challenge you agree to take part in publicity as required. 10. Shortlisted and winning schools will be selected according to judging criteria measuring progress made, throughout the stages of the competition, in active citizenship and democracy. The judges’ decision is final
and no correspondence will be entered into 11. The judges reserve the right to shortlist more or fewer than 10 schools and to select more or fewer than four as winners. 12. Shortlisted schools are required to receive preparation sessions and hold Schools QUESTION TIME events. 13. Shortlisted schools will each receive an award to the value of £250 from the Institute for Citizenship, supported by Parliament’s Education Service, which must be used to run their Schools QUESTION TIME events. Judges will ask for evidence of how the awards were used in support of the events. 14. Shortlisted schools are required to co-operate with all Schools QUESTION TIME personnel at all times. 15. Winning schools are required to send students (number to be specified by the BBC and who must be over the age of 15) to a familiarisation session and then to help produce a real edition of the BBC’s QUESTION TIME. 16. Schools must declare, in writing, along with their application form, if any teacher or student involved in the competition has a direct professional or personal connection with any member of BBC staff and the nature of that connection. This will not necessarily preclude or prejudice entry but it must be declared in advance. 17. The promoter of the Schools QUESTION TIME Challenge is the Institute for Citizenship, 60 Queen Victoria St, London, EC4N 4TW. Schools QUESTION TIME is an active citizenship and communication initiative supported by Parliament’s Education Service in association with the Institute for Citizenship and the BBC.
Question Time is a trade mark of the British Broadcasting Corporation
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