Schools Question Time

PLEASE NOTE: APPLICATIONS ARE NOW CLOSED

Introduction - A National Challenge for 14 - 18 year olds in Schools and Colleges

The BBC’s Question Time has been running for over 25 years on BBC ONE and is Britain’s most watched political programme. Its aim is to give people all round the UK the chance to debate directly with leading politicians and others who hold power and have influence: to exchange opinions, but also to scrutinise and hold to account those in power.

The studio audience is as much a part of the programme as those sitting on the panel. The Schools Question Time Challenge was launched in September 2003. Each year student winners of the Challenge have co-produced an edition of the BBC’s Question Time, working alongside David Dimbleby and the regular team.

Now students and teachers once again have the opportunity to enter the Challenge and use the BBC’s Question Time programme as a basis for work and activities to improve understanding and knowledge of Citizenship issues through discussion.

Aims: Promoting Political Literacy, Parliament and Citizenship Life Skills

"It has increased the pupils’ understanding of current affairs and politics, and perhaps even more importantly, it gave all of the pupils who participated a real sense of achievement that they had put on such an event.”

C. Thatcher, Teacher,
Ilford Ursuline School

Schools Question Time is a Political Literacy and Citizenship 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

Taking Citizenship out of the classroom and into the real world, pupils organise a real event, liaise with political figures and members of the community
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 2009/2010: Dates and Stages

Phase One: 15 November 2009
Deadline for Phase One Challenge entries. The Schools QUESTION TIME Challenge closes at midnight.

Phase Two: 19th November 2009
Announcement of 3 Regional Finalists from EACH of the 15 BBC Nations and Regions.
Each finalist will be invited to film a debate on ONE of their selected issues and submit it to the BBC judges by midnight on MONDAY 14TH DECEMBER 2009.

Phase Three: 8 January 2010
Announcement of fifteen Regional Winners

February to March 2010
Polical Literacy and Communication Skills workshops.
15 Regional Winners only

March 2010
Schools QUESTION TIME Events 15 Regional Winners stage their events

Phase Four: 2 April 2010
Announcement of the four National Winners Phase Four: Early - Mid May

Two-day preparation event
For eight students from the four winning schools.

Phase Four: 8 July 2010
BBC QUESTION TIME broadcast
The BBC QUESTION TIME edition produced with the help of the students will be filmed and broadcast at 10.35pm on BBC ONE.

How to Enter the Challenge

Entering the Challenge this year is easy – all we’d like you to do is answer these questions (in no more than 800 words):

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/topics would you discuss 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. What changes might you want to make to BBC ONE’s QUESTION TIME if you were to help produce the programme? For this question, you should think about the following: