English Day Resources

The shape is much the same in most schools, and the work divides into three parts that can be done by different people.

• Before the day. Read the circular, decide which events the school will enter, and put up the list with closing dates. Most schools lose entries here rather than on the day: a child who does not know the competition exists cannot enter it.
• Preparing the pupils. Two or three weeks of short practices beats one long rehearsal. Speeches need to be heard by somebody other than the teacher who wrote them; plays need the cast to be off-book well before the day.
• On the day. Judges need the criteria in writing before the first performance, a timekeeper is worth more than an extra judge, and somebody must be responsible for the results sheet from the start.

The commonest English Day problem is not standard but participation: the same confident dozen enter everything, and everybody else watches.

• Run a class round first. Every class does a two-minute version in an ordinary lesson, and the class chooses who goes forward. It takes one period and it doubles the field.
• Give the shy pupils a written event. Creative writing and essay events need no stage, and a child who will never speak in a hall may well write the best entry in the school.
• Cast plays wide. A play with twelve speaking parts involves twelve children; a play with three involves three. The scripts on this page are written with a narrator precisely so that a nervous pupil can hold a script and still take part.
• Tell them what the judges want before they prepare, not afterwards. The criteria are in the circular; putting them on the noticeboard in plain words is five minutes' work.