Thank you for your interest in Voice Box.
Here are a few details which we hope will encourage you to take part
in our national joke-telling competition.
What is Voice Box?
Voice Box is an annual national joke competition for mainstream and specialist schoolchildren, designed to
raise awareness of the fun and importance of communication in a light-hearted and inclusive way. It is a
joint initiative from the Royal College of Speech and Language Therapists (RCSLT) and The Communication
Trust (TCT) and is held concurrently in England, Scotland in Wales. The RCSLT runs a separate competition
in Northern Ireland called Voice Box NI.
Voice Box in England, Scotland and Wales
What will happen?

We are inviting mainstream and specialist schools in England, Scotland and Wales to hold joke
competitions in October and November to find their pupil’s funniest joke.

Schools should submit their pupil’s funniest joke to the RCSLT by Thursday 1 December 2016 for the
chance to go through to the Grand Final at Mr Speaker’s House in Westminster, London.

Our judging panel will then shortlist the best jokes in December.

In January 2017, we will invite the shortlisted joke-tellers and their parent(s) or guardian(s) to the
Grand Final.
Why take part in Voice Box?
Communication is a fundamental skill. It has the most profound and positive impact on our lives and
contributes to our social and emotional development, behaviour, learning and educational attainment. It
also impacts on how we interact with other people, how we understand them, and, in turn, how we are
understood.
All children need support to build their communication skills and confidence and some need additional
specialist help to speak and understand what is being said to them. So go on, get involved with Voice Box
and help make a difference to children’s lives.
Some important points about communication

7% of children aged around five years have specific speech and language impairment and a further
1.8% have speech, language and communication needs linked to other conditions, such as a learning
disability, cerebral palsy and autism spectrum disorders.

Every child has a basic right to communicate and they should be supported to do so.

All children need help to develop their skills to communicate from infancy and many children and
young people benefit from extra help to improve their skills.

Communication difficulties severely limit a child’s participation in school, social and family life.

Speech and language therapists work with children to support their speech, language and
communication needs, enabling them to reach their full potential.
How to run your school Voice Box competition
In our toolkit you will find everything you need to participate and run your own Voice Box competition.
Here are some tips on how to hold a successful event:
 The competition in England, Scotland and Wales runs from Monday 3 October to Wednesday
30 November 2016. So, decide on a date and time for when you will hold yours.
 Think about different ways to engage staff and pupils in the Voice Box Joke competition. For instance,
you might want to hold a special assembly where teachers promote the competition by telling jokes to
the pupils. This could be followed by inter-class or inter-year group competitions, judged by teachers or
local celebrities. Or you might consider running a series of classes or laughter workshops before your
competition which discuss a range of subjects including how to make someone giggle, comic timing and
delivery, the different sorts of jokes that exist, when it’s appropriate to tell jokes and when it’s not, and
how to use comic props. You could also hold your competition on ‘No Pens Wednesday’ (5 October).
 Confirm who will lead on plans for the Voice Box competition.
 Meet with other staff members and inform them about Voice Box. Perhaps they would like to join in
and/or help with arrangements.
 Talk to your speech and language therapist (if your school works with one) about your intention to take
part in Voice Box. They can help you include all pupils in the competition, regardless of their
communication ability.
 Publicise the event to your pupils. You will find a poster in our toolkit, so you can download it, print it
out and display multiple copies of it around your school.
 Send a letter to parents. You can use the template we have provided in our toolkit. You might like to
invite parents to watch the Voice Box competition.
 Identify a keen photographer to take pictures of your Voice Box competition. Check you have the
permission of parents/guardians for children and young people to be photographed and for the images
to be published.
 Prepare your own Voice Box certificates (if you are using them) so the children will have something to
take away with them. Use the template in our toolkit or use your own.
 Choose a Voice Box judging panel. You could invite a local celebrity, councillor, or MP to be a judge and
use the opportunity to raise awareness of your work. We have provided a template letter in our online
toolkit for this purpose. It is worth approaching politicians as early as possible so they can book your
event into their busy schedules. If your politician agrees to attend, please let the RCSLT’s PR Manager,
Josephine Olley, know. Her email is: [email protected] and her telephone is 0207 378 3013.
 If you would like to let your local media know that you are holding a Voice Box event, we have provided
a template press release in our online toolkit. You can adapt this or write your own. If you would like
contact details of your local media, again please email: [email protected] , tel: 0207 378 3013.
Please share your media release with Josephine so she can keep track of activity.
After your Voice Box event

Using the Voice Box nomination form you’ve downloaded from www.givingvoiceuk.org , email your
winning school joke to [email protected] by 5pm on Thursday 1 December 2016.

We will shortlist the best jokes we receive to go through to the Grand Final at Mr Speaker’s House in
Westminster, London, next year and will notify the finalists in January 2017.
If you have any questions or require support in running a Voice Box event, please visit
www.givingvoiceuk.org and don’t hesitate to contact Josephine by email: [email protected] or
telephone: 0207 378 3013.