How Schools Question Time works

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David Dimbleby says Schools Question Time helps bring politics and citizenship alive.

Plans are now well advanced for the Schools Question Time Challenge 2010.

The Challenge gives students aged 14 to 18 the opportunity to stage their own Question Time-style debates around the UK with some youngsters getting the chance to help produce a special edition of Question Time in July 2010.

The aim is to help schools nationwide by supporting the citizenship curriculum, helping improve students' public speaking and listening skills, and engaging young people in society and politics.

An initial shortlist will now be drawn up of 45 schools from around the country

Schools were invited to register for a free online education resource pack to support the teaching of citizenship and political literacy for secondary school pupils in the classroom. The registration deadline has now passed.

The resource pack included a new Politics and Parliament Toolkit with lesson plans on the different roles of Parliament and government and voting rights and the reasons why people do or do not vote.

It also provided guidance on how to take part in the second element of the challenge - trying to win the chance for students from schools all over the UK to help produce a special edition of Question Time in July 2010.

New shortlist

David Dimbleby with some of the student producers of 2009

Schools were invited to send in applications describing how they would stage their own debates based on the popular Question Time format. From these applications, an initial shortlist will now be drawn up of 45 schools from around the country.

Three schools will be chosen from each of Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland and the 12 BBC English regions (North West, North East, Yorkshire, Lincolnshire & the Humber, East, West Midlands, East Midlands, South East, London, South, West, South West): 45 schools in all.

These schools will then be invited to film a debate and send the footage in to the BBC. On the basis of these films, the 45 will be narrowed down to 15 (one school each from Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland and the 12 BBC English regions).

The 15 national finalist schools will be given an Institute for Citizenship/Parliamentary Education Service grant to plan and stage Question Time-style events in March. They will each receive professional support in staging their event during a Schools Question Time Challenge workshop.

Choosing the winners

A team of judges will visit each of the 15 finalist schools to attend and evaluate their Question Time event and assess how well they have applied the principles of citizenship. In early April, four schools will be declared winners.

These winning schools will be invited to nominate two pupils each who will work with David Dimbleby and the Question Time production team to produce an edition of the programme in the summer.

In early May, the eight winning students will take part in a two-day workshop with the Question Time team to discuss their plans for the programme.

During the preparation and broadcast of the special schools edition in July, the eight students will experience various production roles such as editor, audience producer, panel producer and online producer.

Challenge partners

The Schools Question Time Challenge is supported by UK Parliament's Education Service, the Institute for Citizenship and the BBC.