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Equality and Diversity Judging Panel

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What's it like being a judge? Equality and Diversity Awards judges Michael, Ellis and Argita put us in the picture

What has your group been created for?

A group of us - 9 children and young people from different places in Oxfordshire were the judging panel for the winners for the Equality and Diversity Awards 2008. We decided which schools were best at treating everyone fairly and celebrating difference. Difference is good – we wouldn’t want to be in a bowl of fruit with all the same fruit – that would just be boring.

We had training on how to be a fair judge, the meetings were fun and there was free food and free taxi. We got to score the schools and came out with an over all winner. At the ceremony we gave a big presentation and gave out the awards.

We decided to make it fair and share the prize money so everyone got the same amount. The schools and youth clubs are all really good – it’s not that some are better than others.

How has it made a difference?

We made a difference because it’s a difficult job to be a judge and we - children and young people - made good judges.

What do you do in your group?

We work well as a group and learn about what different schools and youth clubs are doing, we worked out what the things should be if a school was really good at being fair and equal and really good at respect. I really really enjoyed it and got better by listening. I enjoyed finishing on time and doing the scoring, I enjoyed doing 2 things at one time 1) writing and 2) listening,

The Judging Panel

How do you make sure that every child or young person is heard?

We take it in turns to speak up and all have the same chance to say.

Sometimes we are in a big group and sometimes we are in little pairs so you get your moment to speak out. We check at the end of the meeting if everyone felt they had their say. 

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