Is your student the best in The Netherlands?

The BBC-GNE Young Writers and Public Speaking Awards are two competitions where it is all about the English language. Students from secondary schools and universities of professional education (HBO) are going to compete against each other during these awards. Who is the best English speaker or writer?
Maybe it is someone from your class!
While learning English in a creative way, secondary school students can show their skills and develop them even further. And that is exactly the goal of our organisation.
The BBC really wants to contribute to the development of the English skills of Dutch students.
They try to do so in co-operation with KPN and the Netherlands-England Society (GNE).

In a world where English is one of the most spoken languages and communication is the key to success, the BBC Awards really wants to help the students developing their English.
Last year Phoibe Renema of the Van Lodenstein College, Amersfoort won the BBC Speaking competition.

Maggy van Eijk of The International School of The Hague was the winner of the Young Writers Awards 2007.

The competitions are open to both native and non-native entrants. For the Speaking Awards this doesn't necessarily mean that native speakers are at an advantage, as language-related judging criteria account for a maximum of 9 of a possible 50 points.

Are you convinced that you have young talent in your class? Then let your students take a look at our website! Or ask for our information pack. Of course, students can enter our competition at once.
Two students from your school can compete in the Speaking Awards and two students can compete for our Writing Awards. For more information we refer to our regulations.

A few tips that might be helpful:

We strongly recommend that both you and your students read the writing and speaking tips carefully. They summarize the most vital pieces of advice that need to be considered when preparing for the contest.

Important note for students planning to participate in the Young Writers Awards: please pay special attention to the feedback based on the experience of the judges of these Awards in 2006 and 2007.

If you'd like to see how a successful Dutch teacher and her students prepare for the Awards, do take a look at the text of an important speech given at the launch of the BBC Awards in Belgium on October 5th this year.

For the first time, in 2008 teachers who require additional support/training may apply to take part in purpose-designed workshops in January. These workshops will be given by specialists in the fields of public speaking and writing.

TEACHING IDEAS FOR SPEAKING

Preparing students for the BBC Public Speaking Awards takes time and energy.

Based on the outcome of a questionnaire that we sent out last year and to which many teachers responded six suggestions on the structure and delivery of a speech and handling questions afterwards have been put together.

These useful suggestions can be downloaded here.