Voice Box 2013
Voice Box comes to Westminster
In 2011, the Royal College of Speech and Language Therapists (RCSLT) launched a joke competition called Voice Box, a light-hearted event to raise awareness of the importance and fun of communication. We invited mainstream and special schools across Northern Ireland to hold their own Voice Box joke-telling competitions. Each school sent in their winning pupil’s joke and we invited the best ones to join members of the Northern Ireland Assembly to tell their jokes at a grand final. The event was a great success and a fantastic opportunity to raise awareness of the importance of communication.
Following its success in Northern Ireland, the RCSLT has teamed up with The Communication Trust to launch Voice Box in England.
What is Voice Box?
Together with The Communication Trust’s ‘No Pens Day Wednesday‘ on October 9th 2013 and their forthcoming communication commitment, Voice Box will help schools bring communication to the fore in the 2013 autumn term.
We are inviting mainstream primary and special schools in England to work on their own, or with their speech and language therapists, to hold a joke-telling competition between 2 September and 4 October 2013.
You send us the winning joke from your school by Monday 7 October and our judging panel will shortlist the 10 best jokes they receive.
We will invite the shortlisted joke tellers and their parent or guardian to the Houses of Parliament on Monday 28 October for a national final, hosted at Speaker’s House, with guests welcomed by The Rt Hon John Bercow MP, Speaker of the House of Commons.
Why take part in Voice Box?
Voice Box offers an opportunity to focus on the fun aspects of communication. It is a great way to start the new term and will help all pupils to feel included. It is also a perfect way to build children’s communication confidence in a friendly and supportive environment.
By inviting your local MP to attend, you will also provide have ideal platform on which to showcase the communication work you do with your pupils and show that speech and language therapy really does transform lives.
Key dates
Voice Box runs from 2 September to 4 October 2021
Send us your winning joke by 7 October
We will inform finalists on 8 October
The grand final will take place on 28 October (please note, for many schools this date is during half term)
If you are taking part in ‘No Pens Day Wednesday’ on 9 October why not use Voice Box as a topic for further discussion? Joke tellers could present to their class, share what they learnt from taking part and recite their joke again.
Get started
Download our toolkit by clicking the links below. In this, you will find everything you need to run your own Voice Box competition. From posters to put up around your school, to certificates for participants and template media releases, the toolkit will help you run a simple but effective joke-telling event.
Download the Voice Box Toolkit
5. Letter to parents / Letter to parents (word version)
6. Voice Box letter to MP / Voice Box letter to MP (word version)
7. Template press release / Template press release (word version)
9. Submission form / Submission form (word version)
Speech and language therapists
If you would like to run a Voice Box event with a school you work with talk to your teachers before the end of the summer term.
Teachers
Talk to your speech and language therapist (if your school uses 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.
For more information please contact Robin Matheou or tel: 020 7378 3013