The competition is open to all primary and secondary schools within the postcode areas of Lancashire County Council, Blackburn with Darwen Borough Council, and Blackpool Council ("Entrants"). For the avoidance of doubt, primary and secondary schools will be judged separately.
To enter the competition, Entrants must create a team who are passionate about a chosen topic associated with the presentation question and who are confident public speakers.
Entrants must prepare and deliver a 5-minute presentation ("Presentation") on a topic stipulated by LCC. The chosen topic is now available to view on The Great Lancashire Debate website.
Entrant's Presentations will be judged by a panel of judges chosen by LCC ("the Panel"), including the Leader of Lancashire County Council or their representative. Judging will take place in October 2024.
When judging the competition, the Panel will assess the Entrants Presentations based upon the following:
Interesting content - Entrants should consider the structure of their Presentation, including but not limited to a strong opening, well explained information throughout the Presentation, presenting interesting or unique viewpoints and a clear ending summarising their Presentation. Entrants should consider how vocabulary is used so that it is appropriate to the target audience, subject matter and to the strengths of the Entrants.
Effective communication - Entrants should consider the communication between the speaker and the audience. Entrants should consider audibility and clarity of what is said, as well as eye contact and appropriate body language to put their message across. Entrants can use notes to support them but should not use any visuals such as a PowerPoint, as this competition is focused on the ability to present in public, like our democratic representatives do in the council or in parliament.
Within the judging process, the Panel will choose one winning primary school and one winning secondary school per local area ("Local Area Winners"). For the purposes of this competition, a local area constitutes the post code areas of Blackburn with Darwen Borough Council, Blackpool Council, Burnley Council, Chorley Council, Fylde Borough Council, Hyndburn Borough Council, Lancaster City Council, Pendle Borough Council, Preston City Council, Ribble Valley Borough Council, Rossendale Borough Council, South Ribble Borough Council, West Lancashire Borough Council, and Wyre Council.
The Panel will shortlist six primary schools and six secondary schools ("the Finalists") who will be invited to present their Presentation at the finals taking place at County Hall, Preston during Parliament Week from 18 to 22 November 2024 ("the Finals").
The Finalists will be notified by Friday 25 October 2024 via email to their named lead contact.
The Finals will be held as follows:
Wednesday 20 November 2024 – Primary Schools; and
Thursday 21 November 2024 – Secondary Schools.
The competition entry will run from 12:00 on Monday 22 April 2024 ("the Opening Date") to 23:59 on Thursday 3 October 2024 ("the Closing Date").
All entries received before the Opening Date or after the Closing Date stipulated above in clause 3.1 will be automatically disqualified.
To enter the competition, Entrants must complete the online entry form by the Closing Date. Following submission of the online entry form, Entrants must submit their recorded Presentation via Microsoft SharePoint no later than 23:59 on Friday 4 October 2024.
Completion of the online entry form must be done by a named lead contact who is a staff member of the school and over the age of 18 years old.
Once the named lead contact has submitted the online entry form, they will be invited to a join a secure SharePoint site, for use by the Entrant and LCC only. A link to the site will be sent to the named lead contact via email.
LCC will not accept responsibility for competition entries that are lost, mislaid, damaged, regardless of cause, including, for example, as a result of any equipment failure, technical malfunction, systems, satellite, network, server, computer hardware or software failure of any kind.
By submitting a competition entry, all Entrants are agreeing to be bound by these terms and conditions.
No purchase necessary.
The competition is open to all primary and secondary schools within the postcode areas of Lancashire County Council, Blackburn with Darwen Borough Council, and Blackpool Council.
Each Entrant must comprise of a team of no less than 2 and no more than 6 pupils registered to that school at the time of the competition.
Primary school entries must include pupils from Year 5 only and secondary school entries must include pupils from Year 9 only (relevant school year as of September 2024).
Entry is restricted to one entry per school. Any duplicate entries will be excluded from the competition.
The Presentation submitted via SharePoint must have been recorded in 2024.
If an Entrant is successfully shortlisted as a Finalist, the pupils chosen to take part in the Presentation submitted via SharePoint must be the same pupils who deliver the Presentation at the Finals.
The recorded Presentation must be a maximum of 5 minutes and have a maximum file size of 200 Mb.
The named lead contact for each Entrant shall be responsible for obtaining all the necessary permissions from the parents or guardians of the pupils participating in the competition prior to entering.
Submissions deemed by LCC to be plagiarised, rude, offensive, defamatory, illegal, or condoning dangerous behaviour will be removed from the competition immediately and that Entrant will be prohibited from submitting any further entries.
LCC reserves the right to disqualify Entrants from the competition at any time if an Entrant's conduct is contrary to the spirit or intention of the competition.
All and any costs and expenses incurred by Entrants during the competition are the sole responsibility of the Entrant.
The decision by the Panel in respect of the Local Area Winners, the Finalists and the Winners is final and no correspondence or discussions will be entered into.
Following the Panel's judging process, LCC will contact the Local Area Winners via email to their lead contact.
Following the Panel's judging process, LCC will contact the 12 Finalists by Friday 25 October 2024 via email to their lead contact to inform them of their success.
The Finalists must respond to the shortlisting email within 5 working days. If any Finalist fails to respond to the email within this timeframe, they will be removed from the competition and replaced by the next highest scoring Entrant.
The Finalists will be invited to the Finals taking place at County Hall, Preston on Wednesday 20 November 2024 in respect of primary schools and Thursday 21 November 2024 in respect of secondary schools and shall be asked to deliver their Presentation 'live' at the Finals.
If any Finalist is unable to present at the Finals, they will be removed from the competition and replaced by the next highest scoring Entrant.
In line with the online submission entry, the Finalists' Presentations must be a maximum of 5 minutes long and will be followed by a question-and-answer round. Finalists should be prepared to answer questions from the Panel about their chosen Presentation topic.
A running order will be shared with each Finalist ahead of the event.
The Presentation at the Finals must be presented by the same pupils who were included in the Presentation submitted by SharePoint. Exceptions to this rule are at the sole discretion of the Panel. Any requests for exemptions to this rule must be communicated to the event organisers in advance of the Finals.
The Panel will choose one primary school and one secondary school who will be named the overall competition winners ("the Winners"). The Winners will be announced at the Finals.
It is the Finalists' sole responsibility to ensure that they have sufficient staffing levels present at the Finals and each Finalist must nominate a lead member of staff (aged 18+) who will be the liaison with LCC throughout the Finals.
The Finalists' members of staff will be solely responsible for the safety of their pupils throughout the duration of the Finals and it is their responsibility to ensure that all pupils leave the Finals safely.
The Finals will be photographed and filmed and the content may be broadcast at a later date, such as on the LCC website. Photographs, recordings and films may be used in publicity, including social media, for the competition and for future competitions.
All Entrants must have confirmed, on entering the competition via the online entry form, that they have obtained permission for the use of images, films and recordings from the parents or guardians of all participating pupils. This is the Entrant's sole responsibility and evidence must be provided to LCC within 5 working days upon request.
Entry to the Finals by parents or guardians of the participating pupils will be permitted and free.
All Entrants will receive a certificate.
All Local Area Winners will receive a trophy prize.
All Finalist pupils will receive an individual trophy, a Lancashire badge and additional Lancashire merchandise at the sole discretion of LCC.
The Winners will receive the following:
The Great Lancashire Debate Shield (engraved shield) which will be presented to them by the Chairman of the Council during a visit to their school;
Professional photographs of their team; and
An opportunity to visit County Hall, Preston for an educational visit and to meet and share ideas with LCC's Cabinet, which may, at the sole discretion of LCC, include observing a Cabinet meeting followed by afternoon tea.
The Panel will choose a best speaker in respect of each Final who will be the pupil identified by the Panel to have delivered the best individual speech overall. The best speaker can be chosen from any of the Finalists.
All best speakers will receive the Best Individual Speaker Award (engraved shield), a professional photograph and a book token.
The Panel may award other prizes to the Finalists or individual pupils, at the sole discretion of LCC.
The engraved shields remain the property of LCC.
The Winners and the Best Individual Speakers will be invited to display the engraved shields at their schools until 1 October 2025, at which point they shall be returned to: Democratic Services, County Hall, Preston, PR1 8XJ.
All prizes are non-transferable and non-refundable. No cash alternative, charity donation or substitute prizes are available.
All and any costs and expenses incurred by the Finalists and the Winners during the competition are the sole responsibility of the Finalists and the Winners.
LCC must either publish or make available information that indicates that a valid award took place. To comply with this obligation LCC will publish the Entrant's name, surnames of pupils and county of the Finalists and the Winners and, if applicable, their winning Presentation on LCC's website.
If an Entrant objects to any or all of their pupil's surname(s), county and winning Presentation being published or made available, please contact LCC at TheGreatLancashireDebate@lancashire.gov.uk. In such circumstances, LCC must still provide the information and winning entry to the Advertising Standards Authority on request.
LCC does not claim any rights of ownership in the Presentations.
By submitting a competition entry in the form of a Presentation and any accompanying material, each Entrant agrees to:
Assign to LCC all their intellectual property rights with full title guarantee; and
Waive all moral rights in and to their competition entry and otherwise arising in connection with their entry to which they may now or at any time in the future be entitled under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 as amended from time to time and under all similar legislation from time to time in force anywhere in the world.
It is the responsibility of the Entrant to ensure full compliance with all applicable copyright permissions and law.
The Entrant is solely responsible in ensuring that their Presentation does not infringe on anyone else's rights.
Each Entrant agrees that LCC may, but is not required to, make the Entrant's Presentation available on the LCC website and any other media, whether now known or invented in the future, and in connection with any publicity of the competition. Each Entrant agrees to grant LCC a non-exclusive, worldwide, irrevocable licence, for the full period of any intellectual property rights in the Presentation and any accompanying materials, to use, display, publish, transmit, copy, edit, alter, store, re-format and sub-licence the Presentation and any accompanying materials for such purposes.
LCC accepts no liability if an Entrant fails to adhere to this clause 7 and all Entrants agree to fully indemnify LCC against all and any claims made by a third party arising from any such breach of these terms and conditions.
Submission of a Presentation indicates approval by all Entrants and pupils to be named in publicity, including photographs, recordings and videos and LCC shall have the right to use all resulting publicity material in any medium which for the avoidance of doubt includes, but is not limited to, LCC's website, social media platforms and the internet and in any manner LCC sees fit.
LCC will only process Entrant's personal information as set out in the Privacy Policy. See also clause 6.12 and 6.13 with regards to the announcement of the Finalists and Winners.
By entering the competition, each Entrant acknowledges that LCC has a requirement to collect and process personal data for the purposes of administering the competition.
Should the Winner(s) want to withdraw from the agreement to share personal data they can do so and the prize will be awarded to the next placed Finalist.
Members of the public present at the Finals will be made aware of filming notices and be given the opportunity to decline to be filmed.
By entering the competition Entrants warrant and undertake that the information submitted is true, accurate and complete.
If there is any reason to believe that there has been a breach of these Terms and Conditions, LCC may, at its sole discretion, reserve the right to exclude Entrants from participating in the competition.
LCC reserves the right to hold void, suspend, cancel or amend the competition where it becomes necessary to do so.
LCC reserves the right to amend these terms and conditions at any time. Entrants will be notified by email of any amendments.
These terms and conditions are governed by English law. If any Entrants to this promotion wish to take court proceedings, then they must do this within the courts in the United Kingdom.
