Teachers (team coaches)

The Big Green Challenge website will give you an idea of what to expect, as well as public speaking advice and starting points for discussion. This page contains some further ways to help your school's team to achieve success in the competition.

Picking a team

The first thing you need to do is pick a team of three people. Asking for volunteers is one way of doing this, but this isn't necessarily the best way. In class debates should be held, encouraging everyone to take part; you could even hold a competition between classes in relevant subjects. You may find that the best debaters are not necessarily those you would imagine. This is also a great way to get the pupils (and yourself) used to the format of the competition.

Remember, you can only enter one team from pupils in 2nd year.

Developing the team

How well a team works together, and how well they've bonded, will influence how they perform on the big day. It's therefore important that they get together to share ideas and discuss how the debate will go. Even though each team member has a different role, they all need to have a good working knowledge of the topic up for debate.

There are plenty of links to relevant sources available on this website, though since this is a fast-moving field, pupils can be encouraged to check the news for up-to-date information. All three team members can share what they've learned and build up a plan of what themes to pursue based on their individual roles of Chairperson, Speaker and Questioner - it's a good idea to get them to think up some points in advance of this meeting.

Getting practice before the event is essential for every team. This includes practising privately and in front of an audience. Going through the debate a few times will help the team to spot holes in their argument, mistakes, or where there could be room for improvement. It will also help them get the timing right. You could get the team to perform in front of an audience of classmates - they might even think up points the team hadn't considered.

Judging criteria

Knowing the criteria on which the teams will be judged is a useful way of determining areas which pupils should develop. Points are awarded for displaying skills in the following areas:

• Role-fulfillment - each person must be doing what they are meant to do in their role
• Structure - a speech must be well-structured, with arguments neatly leading up to the conclusion
• Style - posture, gestures, (appropriate) humour, eye contact, confidence, delivery, pace, emotion
• Knowledge - participants must have a good working knowledge of the subject
• Participation - accepting any points of information (traditionally up to 2), and being prepared to give points of information when the opposition is speaking

Extra points may be awarded for teamwork (including how well the speeches fit together) and good refutation of the other team's arguments; good points of information will also attract higher scores.