Dear all,
Welcome to the last post of the year.
Before you scroll down to this week’s Q&A, click here to access our latest bulletin bringing you more information on the on-site activities.
On behalf of the Oxford International team, I would also like to wish you all a wonderful holiday time and a happy New Year!
We will be back with regular posts on 10th January 2020.
Kamila & the Oxford International team
GENERAL
Question:
We want to know if students participating in the “Best Presentation” in the semi-finals can also participate in the Semi-Final Mystery Presentation Challenge.
Answer:
Yes, normally they can participate in both.
Question:
For the Semi-Final Mystery Event it talks about it being a presentation, should we prepare our kids for a formal presentation challenge or a sort of problem-solving challenge?
Answer:
It is a Mystery event, and it tends to change in format. Unfortunately, that is all we can reveal at the moment.
PRESENTATION EVENTS
Question:
In the Investigation, can we use titles of the recommended steps and / or the article author etc.?
Answer:
Yes, you can use names & titles, but no text that relates to the content presented.
Question:
Can the students use cue cards ok?
Answer:
Yes, students can you use cards. However, they should reflect carefully whether this may have an effect on their body language, which is one of the judging criteria.
Question:
According to the brief about the Country Spotlight presentation, students must use a song or a dance, but it reads that videos as visual support can be used. Our students are going to play the national anthem as part of the PowerPoint presentation, it’s just music and by the end of the presentation they are going to play a video and they are going to perform a small dance. Does this comply with the rules?
Answer:
First of all I would like to emphasise that students do not have to use song and dance but they are free to incorporate ONE song OR dance into their presentation if they wish. They can also use background music at some points of their presentation but it must be operated by a team member. Finally, videos can be used (but again, it is not a must!) but will be assessed as visual support only; any content presented in the videos will be disregarded by the judges.
Question:
In the events of formal presentations as the BEO Investigation and Country Spotlight, we can have visual aids. We are preparing a PowerPoint presentation, we will need a student to change the images. That is okay, isn´t it? I mean, it does not have to be a video, it can be the presentation in PowerPoint and a student, which will not count as a participant, can change the visual aids.
Answer:
Correct, your presentation can be solely based on PowerPoint slides and does not have to contain any video. The student who will operate the computer to forward the slides does not count as a participant.
CREATIVE EVENTS
Question:
Can students have background music on the whole time during their drama performance?
Answer:
As long as they are confident that it will not interfere with the delivery of their lines, they can.
Question:
Will there be a table for the A Capella Contest that the kids can hit and make sound?
Answer:
No, as per the written guidelines, no props are allowed during the A Cappella Contest. It is the use of body percussion and the floor only that are allowed to be used to emulate sound.
Question:
This is a question about the A Capella Contest, according to the guidelines we need to use the melody of a song and rewrite the lyrics so they match the corresponding topic. Is it possible to keep some words from the original lyrics or not?
Answer:
Yes, some words can overlap with the original but the majority of the lyrics should be produced by the students.