FAQ's

All students must be enrolled in full-time education at your school. Please see the age requirements below for each competition: 

Schools’ Mace Debate: Ages 11-18 (Years 7-13) 

Public Speaking Competition: Ages 13-16 (Years 9-11) 

Performing Shakespeare: Ages 11-14 (Years 7-9) 

Please note: all students must be within the listed age ranges for the entirety of the competition. For example, students turning 17 before the end of the Public Speaking Competition are ineligible to compete- but should join Schools' Mace! 

Schools’ Mace and PSC teams consist of three to five students, all of whom must be in full-time secondary education at the same school. Three students will compete in each round, but it is perfectly acceptable to switch out these students between rounds from the team of (maximum) five. If a school enters two teams for PSC, students cannot switch between teams. 

Please have a look at the 26-27 Comps calendar or the timeline in the relevant tab! This will keep you updated on all important dates relating to our three domestic competitions.  

Regional final dates can be found in each competition’s handbook to help you organise your calendar for the year. Handbooks are located on the individual competition pages on our website.  

Round 1 draw release dates are listed in the 26-27 Comps calendar. This is when you will receive all necessary information regarding your round including date, time, location, participating schools and topic list (for PSC) or motion and position (for Mace). A similar email will be sent for subsequent rounds. Please note, the draws for each competition will be sent on different dates- refer to the calendar for details.

Details for your heats will be sent from Competition@esu.org. Please check your inbox and junk folder if missing any information. If you are still unable to find these details, please email Competition@esu.org.

Please email Competition@esu.org with your school’s name, previous contact name and email, and new contact name and email. 

The ESU places the utmost importance on the safety and well-being of young people, staff and anyone who interacts with the charity. The ESU promotes the well-being of children and adults and seeks to prevent harm through full compliance with our safeguarding policy and procedures. We aim to protect all by responding effectively should a safeguarding concern arise. Please head over to the policies tab which can also be found at the bottom of the website

For all ESU events, we would like to see all students dressed in professional or school appropriate attire. 

Schools’ Mace & PSC: Students should wear their school uniforms or business casual clothing. 

Performing Shakespeare: Students should wear school uniforms or dress in all black. 

Please email Competition@esu.org as soon as possible before your team’s heat. Please include your school’s name, heat code and reason for withdrawal.  

Please see the ESU cancellation policy on our policy page for more information.  

Thank you for hosting! Host schools are responsible for welcoming students, teachers, judges and guests and acting as the venue for our competitions. As a host school, you will be asked to provide refreshments and have an area for the competition to commence without interruption. Further, we do ask schools to have an area for the judges to deliberate privately. 

Please see the host school guide here for more detailed information on what is expected. Host schools are an integral part of our competitions- without your generosity we would be unable to hold them!  

If you have any questions about hosting, please contact the competitions team at Competition@esu.org and we will be more than happy to help. 

Yes! For rounds 1 and 2, host schools will be reimbursed up to £75, and up to £100 for regional finals. 

Prior to the heat, the lead teacher for the host school will be provided a host school pack which includes an expense claim form. Following the completion of the heat, we ask teachers to complete and return the form with attached receipts to the ESU within one week so we may process the reimbursement.  

Please contact the competitions team at 020 7529 1565, as soon as possible if you are running late to your heat and provide your expected ETA. Each heat will have a competition lead present who will be in charge of sticking to timings. The ESU will notify the competition lead, who will either delay the start time or rearrange the running order of the heat. 

Before your heat, please check travel conditions and consider traffic before departing. If you run into any issues, please let us know as soon as possible. 

Our participating students and teachers are passionate, and this interest creates a high standard of competition. We understand that in the moment being eliminated may be disappointing. Please remember that for all our competitions, the judges’ decision is final.  

However, if there are any issues during your heat that cannot be resolved on the day, please feel free to contact the competitions team at Competition@esu.org. We always want to make sure our heats are held up to the ESU’s standards and that every participant has a positive experience. 

A Schools’ Mace team consists of five students, three that compete and two alternates. Schools may only enter one team. 

However, it is possible to have a reserve or ‘swing’ team present on the day in case a school is unable to attend or withdraws. This swing team will not be able to advance in the competition, but it is a good opportunity to involve more students and receive feedback from our judges. 

The rules, format and timings for the Schools’ Mace can be found in the handbook or on the Schools' Mace Tab.  

Further, you may find the judging materials, videos to past competitions and a guide to the extended Mace format under the ‘Downloads’ tab on the ESU Schools’ Mace website for you to review.  

Mace teams consist of three to five students, all of whom must be in full-time secondary education at the same school or home-schooled. Three students will compete in each round, but it is perfectly acceptable to switch out these students between rounds from the team of (maximum) five. 

Schools will be notified of their motion and position when they receive the draw for each round. Please see the ESU Key Dates Calendar here to see when the draw will be sent. 

A PSC team consists of five students, three that compete and two alternates. Schools may enter up to two teams.

The first round of the PSC will be held online, via Zoom. Schools will be emailed the meeting link and password for this in their draw. 

From round 2 onward, all heats will be held in person. 

The rules, format, and timings for the PSC can be found in the handbook.  

Further, you may find the judging materials, videos to past competitions and resources to help you prepare under the ‘Resources’ tab on the ESU Public Speaking webpage for you to review. 

PSC teams consist of three to five students, all of whom must be in full-time secondary education at the same school or home-schooled. Three students will compete in each round, but it is perfectly acceptable to switch out these students between rounds from the team of (maximum) five. 

However, if your school has entered two teams, we do not allow students to switch between teams. 

Schools will be notified of their topic when they receive the draw for each round. Please see the ESU Key Dates Calendar here to see when the draw will be sent. 

During the internal round 1, schools may include as many performances as they wish. Up to two performances are allowed to progress to round 2. A performance can be either a monologue or duologue, and all performances must be a selection from one of Shakespeare’s 37 plays. 

All rounds for this competition will be held in-person. The first round will be held internally in your school. The ESU will provide resources in the Welcome Pack to assist teachers in running this round. 

Following the selection process, later rounds will all be held externally in person. 

Please note that we require host schools for round 2 and regional finals. If we are unable to secure a host school, we may need to move a heat online, via Zoom.

The rules, format, and timings for Performing Shakespeare can be found in the handbook.  

Further, you may find the judging materials, videos to past performances and example speeches to help you prepare under the ‘Downloads’ tab on the ESU Performing Shakespeare webpage for you to review.  

Students may perform the same piece at each stage of the competition or choose to change the text between rounds.

Students are allowed to use one chair per performer to aid their performance if they wish. Use of this chair is not required.  

No other props or accessories may be used in performances. This includes items that may already be in the performance space (i.e. support columns, staircases, curtain behind the stage, etc.) or one the performer (i.e. jewellery, shoes, hats, etc). To evoke the presence of an item, performers may pantomime.

To provide an equitable experience for all, no costumes may be worn in performances. Performers should wear their school uniform or dress all in black. Should a performer wear a costume to a heat, judges may penalise the performance for failing to adhere to the rules.  

Schools are allowed to enter up to two performances (monologue or duologue) to round 2. If a student is unable to make their monologue performance, you may not swap them with another student. However, if a student within a duologue is unable to make the heat, you may use an understudy. Should that performance progress to the next round, the original performer must resume their role.  

The link and password for Zoom will be in the draw email that is sent to all competing schools. Each heat will have a unique Zoom login, and you will only compete with the schools in your heat.

PSC round one heats are held online to make the competition more accessible to a variety of schools. Please see the Zoom policy on the Policies tab for a guide on how heats are run. 

If you have any further questions, please contact the competitions team at Competition@esu.org and we will be more than happy to help. 

PSC: Each competing team needs two devices to compete. This is to allow the speaker and chair/questioner to meet with their respective inter-school teammates during preparation time.  

Please be aware that your speaker and chair/questioner will be in meetings with different people at the same time. Depending on your space, students may need to use headphones to hear one another.  

Mace and Shakespeare (if necessary): It is perfectly acceptable for one team/performance to share a device while competing. 

We recommend students to stand when speaking during online heats as body language and posture affect presentation delivery. However, it is not mandatory. We encourage competitors to prepare for and present in online heats the same way they would in person, if possible.  

The safety of young people is the prime priority of the ESU. For Zoom heats, we realise this presents a new set of challenges to ensure students are safe. All heats are led by an ESU trained competition lead who has completed safeguarding training and holds an Enhanced DBS with barred list.  

We require a teacher or school-appointed safeguarding lead to always be online with the students. This includes breakout rooms, the competition itself and receiving feedback from the judges. 

If you have any questions about safeguarding or ESU policies, please contact our safeguarding lead, Gavin Illsley at Gavin.Illsley@esu.org.