Newsletter 3

February 2005

The BBC Young Writers and Public Speaking Awards 2005 enter a new phase!

This national competition for secondary school students enhancing their
communication skills in English in writing or speaking is a great success!
The registration procedure has ended and over 250 students of 65 different
schools entered the preliminary rounds.

The Awards are an initiative of the BBC in co-operation with the Netherlands-England Society and the British Council.

PUBLIC SPEAKING AWARDS

The James Boswell Institute - University Utrecht hosts the preliminary rounds that will take place on 26 February, 5 and 12 March.
Starting at noon 3 heats with 8 competitors each will be held.
After having given their presentations and answered questions from both jury and audience, the judges will pass their opinion.
The winner and the runner-up of each heat will be invited to compete in one of the semi-finals on 19 March, again at the James Boswell Institute.

The organizing committee feels honoured that the directors of three main partners and sponsors, James Boswell Institute-University Utrecht, British Council and VisitBritain, will present prizes to contestants of the preliminary rounds and semi-finals.

The six best contestants of the semi-finals will go on to the National Final on 9 April at the Peace Palace, The Hague.

YOUNG WRITERS AWARDS

Entries for this competition include pieces of prose, poetry and dialogue.
The judges are formed by a team of 'creative writers' of Utrecht University, who have
the difficult task of selecting the 6 winning texts out of 170 entries!

These winning texts will be read by the British actor Peter Massey at the National Final on 9 April.

Newsletter 2

December 2004

Letter from Sir Colin Budd KCMG
British Ambassador to the Netherlands

"It gives me great pleasure to have this opportunity to give my support to this exciting and important competition. Since the awards began in 1988 they have developed and grown into a major opportunity for young people throughout the Netherlands to show off their language skills. Today the partnership of the BBC, British Council and GNE plays a major role in stimulating the interest of young people at all levels of education."

"The Minister of Education, Culture and Science also fully supports these Young Writers and Public Speaking Awards. This year's theme of 'Active Citizenship and Identity' is one that will clearly evoke some fascinating interpretations. This competition is a excellent platform to empower young people to comment on today's society and I would like to take this opportunity to wish all those involved in the BBC Young Writers & Speaking Awards 2005 a successful competition."

Colin Budd

Newsletter 1

November 2004

Final at a very special location

The date of the BBC Young Writers and Public Speaking Awards Final is set! It will take place on the 9th of April 2005, at the Peace Palace in The Hague. It's a unique location, because never before have the palace doors been opened for such an event!

For the first time the Final of the Awards is part of the Haganum Festival. This festival's theme is "The Art of the Spoken Word". Several well known Dutch journalists, writers and musicians will be present that day. Details will be available soon.

Information on its way

In early November all secondary schools will be informed by letter about the Awards. The pre-registration term will be closed on the 15th of December 2004, so be quick! Registration for the Public Speaking Awards will be closed on the 15th of January and for the Young Writers Awards on the 31st of January 2005.

Ruud de Wild and other celebrities

We won't tell you too much about the content of the Awards. Later on there will be more information available on the website and in the newsletter. What we can tell you is that Ruud de Wild will be a member of the Advisory Board.
You will probably hear him talk about the Awards on Radio 538. He might even "accidentally" let some information slip!

Besides that there will be more Dutch and English celebrities present during the Awards. They will take part as members of the jury or as a presenter. More information on this will be available on this website soon. Now you have even more reason to keep an eye on this website!

Preliminary rounds

The preliminary rounds will take place from February 2005. Locations and dates are available on our website: www.bbcawards.com