News

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

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.

Winner and runner-up of the Netherlands BBC Awards give excellent presentations during the International Public Speaking Competition of the English-Speaking Union 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.
After workshops, debates, a visit to the House of Commons, a theatrical performance, a musical and a VIP tour through the BBC TV Centre, on Friday their week culminated in the competitions in which the participants competed for the honour of being selected as best speakers of the year.

The preliminary round in which the Dutch participants had been placed comprised 15 candidates from the Philippines, Australia, Hong Kong, India, the United States, England, China and Pakistan.
Both Stijn and Akhila delivered their presentations convincingly; clearly they had taken to heart the advice they'd received at the National Finals. They answered the often critical questions from the public with verve and assurance.
The standard of almost all the speakers was very high.
Unfortunately the jury did not select our candidates for the Grand Finale.
They did, however, select Stijn for an honourable mention.

In the Grand Finale which was held in the American Embassy in London, the 8 finalists represented Romania, Thailand, Poland, Bulgaria, Argentina, Lebanon, China and the Philippines.

Gian Karlo Dapul of the Philippines was the winner, Kanyanat Piticharoen of Thailand was number 2, Dobri Dobrev of Bulgaria was the best non-native speaker and Martin Racimo of Argentina received the public prize.

Stijn and Akhila enjoyed their week, the many contacts which they made and the experience gained among contemporaries, many of whom had totally different cultural and political backgrounds.

> 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:

Successful final BBC Awards 2008

14 Apr 2008 Last Saturday 12 April, the final of the BBC Young Writers and Public Speaking Awards 2008 was held in Utrecht, under charimanship of H.E. Lyn Parker, the British ambassador to the Netherlands.

Winner of the Public Speaking Awards was Stijn Depla from the Christelijk Gymnasium in Utrecht. Stijn convinced the judges and audience in five minutes that genetic modification is a blessing for humanity. Second place was for Akhila Jambagi of the Rijnlands Lyceum in Oegstgeest. Stijn and Akhila will travel to London for a week in May to compete in the international competition of the English-Speaking Union. The Audience Award for the BBC Public Speaking Awards also went to Stijn Depla.

Summaries of the essays shortlisted for the BBC Young Writers Awards 2008 were read during the final. First place was for Kristel Schoonderwoerd of the Revius Lyceum in Doorn. Runner up was Maarten Jansen from Huizermaat in Huizen N.H. Maarten's creativity was also rewarded with the Audience Award for the BBC Young Writers Awards. Numbers 1 and 2 of the Young Writers Awards will get the opportunity to attend a Summer Course at one of the Arvon centres in Great Britain.

> Read all the results

Shortlist for Young Writers Award 2008

27 Mar 2008 After long deliberation over the numerous entries for the Young Writers Award 2008, the team of judges has published their shortlist of the best entries. One of these six will be selected as Young Writers Award winner at the National Final on April 12.

> Read the shortlisted entries

Judges and Question Team for National Final

29 Feb 2008 We now have the names of the members of the Judges and the Question Team for the National Final on April 12.

Once again the chairman of the international team of judges is the British Ambassador at The Hague.

More information on judges and members of the Question Team can be found on the Finals page.

New sponsor for BBC Awards

20 Feb 2008 The organising committee of the BBC Awards is extremely pleased that the Hogeschool Utrecht (the University of Applied Sciences), has decided to support the Awards. This support shows the mutual interest of both parties to closely cooperate in this educational project.

The National Final 2008 will be hosted by the Hogeschool in the Auditorium of the Faculty of Economies and Management (FEM).

The FEM building on the Padualaan at the Uithof is an interesting and modern structure designed by the very successful Mecanoo group and it gives us the opportunity to invite a much bigger audience than on previous occasions.

Moreover the BBC Awards and the Faculty Communication & Journalism intend to combine forces on publicity and to promote a wider interest in the Awards.

Revised dates for ESU competition

18 Dec 2007 The winner and runner-up of the BBC Public Speaking Award in The Netherlands automatically qualify for the international speaking competition of the ESU in London.

ATTENTION: In contrary to what has been indicated so far, the ESU has revised the dates of the International Competition in May 2008.

These new dates are: departure to London on Tuesday May 6, return flight on Saturday May 10. Please bear in mind that this is the Saturday of the Whitsun weekend!

Topic ESU for the Public Speaking Awards 2008 announced

5 Dec 2007 The topic for the international ESU final has been announced: New Horizons, New Frontiers. Participants for the Public Speaking Award can choose from this topic or one of the five other topics. The advantage of selecting the ESU topic is that those going to London as the national winner or runner-up do not have to prepare a new speech.

Revised formula for the preliminary rounds and semi-finals of the Public Speaking Awards

20 Nov 2007 As can be seen from the speech marking sheets, jury members have to take many different aspects of public speaking into consideration.

Only 9 points out of a total of 50 are awarded for correct use of the English language. Although this is a relatively small allocation, we recognize that participants receive their education at different types of school. In the preliminary rounds and the semi-finals, therefore, a distinction will be made between participants from three types of schools:

• Those from international schools
• Those following a bilingual education
• Those from all other schools

This distinction complies with the wishes of many teachers and students.

> Marking sheet Public Speaking Award

Support from the British Embassy and Dutch Ministry for Education

20 Nov 2007 The working group, in charge of the organisation of the BBC Awards 2008, feels that it is of great value that, besides the support that they get from partners and sponsors the British Embassy in the Netherlands underlines the importance of the BBC Awards.

The ambassador confirmed his support in a recent interview and he will be acting as chairman of the jury at the National Final in 2008.

> Read the letter from the Ambassador
> Read the interview with the Ambassador

The Dutch Ministry for Education also added their support in a letter to all English teachers in the country.

> Read the letter from the Ministry

1 Nov 2007 On 5 October 2007, the BBC Awards Belgium were launched for the first time.

At that meeting, which was attended by a large number of teachers, Suzanne Hoeben (photo right), a teacher at the Revius in Doorn, gave an inspiring talk on the way she and her students prepare for participation in the Awards. Suzanne and her pupils have been very successful over the years.

> Read the speech

2007 Finalists' speeches now on-line

7 Aug 2007 You can now read the full text or a summary of the six 2007 Public Speaking Award finalists's speeches. Just follow the links on the results page.

> 2007 results page, including speeches

Video clips of finalists

20 May 2007 During the National Final in Utrecht, each of the twelve finalists introduced themselves by means of a pre-recorded video message. Thanks to etv.nl, we are able to bring you these video clips to enjoy.

> Watch the video clips