In the nineteen years that the Speaking Awards and in the twelve years that the Writing Awards are held, there were a lot of students that competed in this contest. We can tell you over and over again about the fun and experience of these two contests, but we think it is better to let you read about the fun and the experience your predecessors had.

2007

As audience prize for the Public Speaking Awards 2007, Heidi Aho won a trip to Cambridge. Read her report.

Heidi also made it to the final of the English Speaking Union's International Public Speaking Competition in London. Read about this special experience.

Part of 2007 Young Writers Award winner Maggy van Eijk's prize was to attend a writing course at one of the Arvon centres in the UK. This summer she went to Scotland for a 5-day writing adventure. Read her report.

Arne Muis, runner up in the 2007 Young Writers Awards tells us about the exciting experience attending an evening with the poet Catherine Smith in the Arvon centre where he attended a writing course. Read about his encounter.

At the launch of the BBC Awards in Belgium on 5 October 2007 Keye Tersmette told the audience (teachers of English from a large number of schools) about his motivation for participating in the Awards and his experiences. Keye was one of the finalists in the Public Speaking Awards 2007 in the Netherlands. Read his speech.

2006

Casper van Gemert (S.G. Weredi, Valkenswaard) was winner of the Young Writers Awards 2006. Part of his prize was a writing course at one of the Arvon centres. Read about his experience here.

Kimberly Camu won the audience prize at the 2006 Awards final. Her prize was a trip to Cambridge, kindly provided by sponsor Buro Britain. Read her report.
Kimberly also wrote about her trip to London, where as winner in the Netherlands, she competed in the international final. Read about it here.

Young Writers Award 2006 runner-up Martin van Brakel (S.G. De Passie, Utrecht) was quick to use his prize and attended a fiction writing course at the Arvon centre The Hurst in Shropshire. Read about his experiences here.

2005

Public Speaking Award 2005 winner Sara Al Tamimi (Rijnlands Lyceum, Sassenheim) won the opportunity to spend a week in London with 63 students from 47 different countries, taking part in a programme of workshops, excursions and cultural events. Read about her experiences here.
Sara became a local celebrity after being featured in her local newspaper! Read the article here.

As runner-up for the Public Speaking Award 2005, Krijn Dijkstra (Scholengemeenschap Twickel, Hengelo) joined Sara at the International Final in London. Read about his trip here.

Maite Vermeulen (Montessori Scholengemeenschap Amsterdam), Young Writers Award 2005 winner made a three day trip to London and supported Sara and Krijn at the International Final in London. Read about it here.
As part of her prize, Maite attended a writing course at one of the Arvon centres in the UK and has written about her experiences there. Read her report here.

Geert van der Wal (Scholengemeenschap Twickel, Hengelo) was the proud runner-up of the Young Writers Award 2005 and also visited London with Maite. He has also written about the ups and downs of the Awards. Read his report here.

Jamilah Sherally (Arnhem International School) won the special audience award for her entry to the Young Writers Award 2005 and won a trip to Cambridge! Read about her experience here.

2003

Both Jeroen Claus (Young Writers Award) and Arthur Krebbers (Public Speaking Award) were winners in 2003 and have written about their experiences of the awards. Read how they found it here.

Arthur Krebbers was interviewed for the BBC Radio 4 programme Home Truths in February 2006. He told presenter John Peel about his experiences at the awards and what he is doing with his language and speaking skills now.

You can hear the programme at the BBC Radio 4 website.

This year, Arthur has gone from strength to strength. Read his opinion piece published by the Reformatorisch Dagblad.