Four schools have won the Schools Question Time challenge for 2006. Pupils from these schools will now get the opportunity to work alongside David Dimbleby and the production team to produce a special Question Time programme, for broadcast in the regular BBC One slot at 10:35pm, on Thursday 6 July.
The winners are:
- City & Islington College, London
- Knox Academy, Haddington
- Ysgol Gyfun Emlyn, Carmarthenshire
- Wolverhampton Girls School, Wolverhampton
 | SCHOOLS QUESTION TIME 2006 Thursday, 6 July, 2006 BBC One 22:35 BST |
The Challenge, supported by the BBC, the Institute for Citizenship and BT, involves schools staging their own debates based upon the popular BBC One Question Time format.
Two students from each of the four schools will now unite to form a production team for a BBC Question Time programme.
They will be involved in all aspects, from making editorial decisions to researching and taking on production roles for the programme.
David Dimbleby said: "The response to this year's Schools Question Time challenge was tremendous.
"The judges were very impressed by the quality of the events held by the 12 finalist schools, and particularly by the highly topical and challenging questions and the wide ranging and stimulating debates that took place.
"Once again, young people have shown that they are passionate about politics, and particularly about the issues that affect their lives.
"I am looking forward to working with pupils from the winning schools in July."
This is the third year that the Challenge has run. In previous years pupils have given their programmes a distinctive flavour by, for example, putting age restrictions on the audience members. Boris Johnson was a popular panellist for the 2004 schools edition. In the 2005 programme Otis Ferry, who invaded the House of Commons over the hunting bill, appeared alongside veteran MP Tony Benn.
Mr Benn implored the younger generation to study history and challenged them to take up the baton of responsibility over issues such as Africa.
Potent issues
The Schools Question Time Challenge is a three-stage process. The first part offers schools a free resource pack to support the teaching of citizenship in the classroom, consisting of curriculum-based work sheets centred on speaking and listening, enquiry and debate, teamwork and critical self-analysis.
The second part is the Challenge itself - when schools put on their own Question Time-style event.
Thirdly, the winning schools have the chance to send students to work with David Dimbleby and his production team on a real Question Time.
By participating in the Challenge pupils learn about citizenship, contribute to stimulating political discussions, improve their speaking and listening skills and engage with members of the community.
Zandria Pauncefort, chief executive of the Institute for Citizenship, said she was thrilled by the level of participation this year and increasingly impressed by the young people, who were tackling some very contentious issues of faith, ethnic and cultural identity.
Such issues are almost becoming a hallmark of this generation, she believes.
"This has been a year when Schools Question Time has enabled schools to really debate those issues in a deep and potent way."
Schools registered online ahead of a January deadline to enter the Challenge and had to describe the issues they would discuss during their ideal Question Time and the panel they would choose to debate those issues.
The four winning schools were chosen from a shortlist of 12 finalist schools, each of which held their own local Schools Question Time event in March 2006, with the help of a �500 cash grant from BT to stage their event.
The finalist schools also received professional support from BT by taking part in a Schools Question Time workshop focusing on communication skills.
A team of judges from the BBC, the Institute for Citizenship and BT visited each event to select the four winning schools.
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This has been a year when Schools Question Time has enabled schools to really debate those issues in a deep and potent way
