Conditions and Regulations

• The competition entry form must be submitted on or before 24 October 2022.
• It is the responsibility of the teacher-in-charge to become familiar with the regulations and requirements for SU-AO! by reading this document. Schools interested in the competition are also strongly encouraged to send at least one teacher to the NET Section Competitions briefing session (see details in Schedule of Events and Submission Deadlines) where the regulations are discussed and advice is given on how to prepare students for the competition.
• The NET Section competitions adopt a ‘train the trainer’ model and the Speak Up – Act Out! On Air! training workshop is offered for teacher development (see details in Schedule of Events and Submission Deadlines). Teachers-in-charge that have not previously entered the competition must attend the workshop. Teachers with experience in improvised drama may apply for exemption to Mr Richard COWLER on 3549 8376 or by email at richardcowler@edb.gov.hk.
• The number of teams and team members in SU-AO! On Air 1 Day and 2 Weeks:
  • For SU-AO! On Air! 1 Day schools may only enter 1 team.
  • For SU-AO! On Air! 2 Weeks, schools may enter up to 2 teams, one of which is to be designated ‘Team A’ and the other ‘Team B’.
  • If a school is entering both ‘On Air!’ categories, they may enter the same or different teams.
  • Performance teams of 4 to 6 students are required for both 1-day and 2-week categories. The students may come from the same or different year levels.
  • For SU-AO! On Air! 2 Weeks, schools may have a support team of up to 4 students who help with the preparation of the radio drama.  The support team is not obligatory. Please see the designated roles of the support team in Regulations for SU-AO! On Air! 2 Weeks.
• In case of over-subscription:
  • For SU-AO! On Air! 1 Day, priority will be given to schools that are solely entering the ‘SU-AO! Live!’ 1 Day, and thereafter by a draw.
  • For SU-AO! On Air! 2 Weeks, schools will be chosen by a draw. Priority will be given to the ‘A’ teams in the case of over subscription.
• A school whose team(s) pulls out of the competition within two weeks of the competition session will not be eligible to enter the following year.
• In order for the competition to run smoothly, teachers-in-charge are asked to ensure that the administrative tasks are completed in a timely manner. Please note the deadlines, requirements and possible penalties listed in the Schedule of Events and Submission Deadlines for the submission of forms for the competition.

• All students in the performance teams are expected to have roughly equal acting roles and to handle all the live or recorded sound effects. No student should be allocated as a narrator (see below).
• Radio dramas rely on character voices and sound effects to create the drama. Students are encouraged to create sound effects using their voices, objects around them, musical instruments, as well as copyright-free sound effects that can be found on the Internet. In order to play recorded sound effects, it may be helpful for at least one student to use multiple devices (e.g. a laptop and a smartphone).
• Schools are asked to test computer audio equipment in advance, and ensure that there is/are a good quality microphone(s) available.
• In order to encourage good dramatic development, brief narration (of 15 seconds or less) is only permitted on up to 3 occasions during a team’s radio drama. Any use of longer narration or narration on more than 3 occasions will receive a 10% penalty of the total mark on.
• The time allowed for performances is 4 to 5 minutes. Performances that are less or more than the permitted time will receive a mark penalty of 10% of the total mark. A warning bell will be rung once at 1 minute before the end of the permitted time and a final bell twice at the end of the permitted time. On the final bell, the student speaking is allowed to finish their sentence, but then the performance must stop.
• At the competition session, the order the teams perform in will be chosen by a draw.
• The drama performed must be based on the given stimulus. In SU-AO! On Air! 1 Day this will be given to students at the beginning of the competition session. In SU-AO! On Air! 2 Weeks this will be sent out to schools by email approximately 14 calendar days before the competition session.
• Teams must behave respectfully at competition sessions. Teams may receive a 10% penalty of the total mark for:
  • arriving late at the beginning or after a break; and
  • for misbehaviour.

• All team members must wear school uniform at the competition sessions.
• All students and teachers in a team must stay for the entire competition session, and no exceptions will be made. 
• The teacher-in-charge is responsible for ensuring that there are no offensive (e.g. racist, sexist or homophobic) scenarios.
• The decision of the judging panel is considered final and no correspondence will be entered into regarding adjudication.
• Alongside the team’s performance, the script written by teams will be used by the judges, to guide their understanding of the radio drama and support them to mark ‘Use of English’. Students should take care to write a comprehensible script (which is as accurate as possible) but should be reminded that accuracy is only one of the criteria under ‘Use of English’ (see Adjudication and Criteria). Students are allowed to use their scripts during performances but they will not be penalised if they do not use the exact words of the script. Some improvisation of dialogue is to be encouraged.
• For both SU-AO! On Air! 1 Day and SU-AO! On Air! 2 Weeks, a team will receive a 10% penalty of the total mark if the planning and scriptwriting tasks are not completed.
• The supervising teacher must not be present in the same room as the team during the performance, for the 2-weeks category, and for both preparation and performance in the 1-day category.
• Before each performance, a copy of the team’s script will be shared in the chat function of the video conferencing platform. A team may choose to use the ‘share screen’ function in order to play sound effects at a higher level of quality.

• This competition session is held on a videoconferencing platform and is divided into two parts:
  • a 90-minute preparation period (in which school teams create a radio drama in ‘breakout rooms’); and
  • a live performance and prize announcement ceremony (including student comments on what they have learnt from the performances).
• The teacher-in-charge is required to attend the whole session but is not permitted to assist their students in developing their dramas. During the preparation period, teachers will be assigned to observe a team from another school and will be assigned to their breakout room. The teacher-in-charge is not permitted to communicate with their students until all the performances have finished.
• A stimulus will be given to each team at the beginning of the preparation period and each team will be assigned a ‘breakout room’, a suggested time framework to follow and a compulsory planning and scriptwriting task to be completed on a web-based software. A 10% penalty of the total mark will be applied if the planning and scriptwriting tasks are not completed or submitted.
• Access to the Internet is permitted during the preparation period in order to check a dictionary and find sound effects. Any help from adults or other teachers is strictly prohibited and would lead to the team being disqualified from the competition.

• This competition category is divided into two parts:
  • a 14-day preparation period (in which teams create a radio drama working in groups face-to-face or online as social distancing measures allow); and
  • a live performance and prize announcement ceremony (including student comments on what they have learnt from the performances).
• Schools may be asked to change to another competition session to make the numbers of schools even at a sessions in the event schools withdraw from the competition.
• A stimulus for the radio dramas will be sent to the contact teacher at each school by email approximately 14 calendar days before the deadline set for submission.
• For SU-AO! On Air! 2 Weeks, the support team of up to 4 students may assist with the preparation for the performance (in capacity as a director, writer or deviser) but they cannot assist with the performance in any way (e.g. by playing sound effects or providing technical support during the performance).

The judging panels will include representatives from the EDB, drama instructors and English teachers. The following criteria will be used. A full version of the judging criteria is available in the Downloadable Documents page of the SU-AO! On Air! section of at the NET Scheme e-Platform: https://nets.edb.hkedcity.net/page.php?p=487