Preparations BBC Awards 2009 well under way!

25 Aug 2008 For the organising committee of the 2009 BBC Young Writers and Public Speaking Awards, it's 'all systems go' as we set up the competitions for the school year 2008 -2009! In September all teachers of English at secondary schools in the Netherlands will receive the information package on these very interesting and appealing competitions.

In order to give more students the chance to enter, this year we are increasing the number of candidates from two to four students per school in each of the competitions.

Preliminary rounds for the Public Speaking Awards - spread over the country - will be held in February 2009. The semi-finals will take place in Utrecht in March and the National Final is planned for the end of March or early April in Amsterdam.

The Awards will be presented with a fresh new house style, but the set-up will of course follow the well-tried system developed over the years.

To whet your appetite, have a look around this website and read about previous participants' experiences.

Video of 2008 Final now On-line

2 Sep 2008 Our friends from etv.nl have once again produced an excellent video report of the national final. The report of the 2008 final is now available.

> Watch videos

Winner and runner-up of the Netherlands BBC Awards at the International Public Speaking Competition of the ESU in London

17 May 2008 Our winner Stijn Depla and the runner-up Akhila Jambagi were among a group of 58 participants from 35 countries from every continent who took part in a varied and interesting week organised by the ESU.

> Read the rest of this story
> Read Akhila Jambagi's report of her London trip

Two Public Speaking Award 2008 participants' experiences

17 May 2008 Two participants from the Rijnlands Lyceum in Oegstgeest write about their experiences in the preliminary rounds and semi final of the Public Speaking Awards 2008: