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Judges for Mother Tongue Other Tongue - multilingual poetry competition
This is an opportunity for students who are multi-lingual or who are learning another language, who also have an interest in poetry in other languages, to be judges for this year’s Mother Tongue Other Tongue competition for 8-18 year olds.
Entries in both categories – Mother Tongue (poetry in a home or heritage language) and Other Tongue (an opportunity for children to be creative in a language that they are learning) are currently being submitted.
Entries will be shared between judges after the competition deadline on 24th May. You must be available to read and select entries between Thursday 29th May and the submission date for preferences, which is 3rd June.
An online discussion involving all judges will take place during the afternoon of 6th June (2pm – 6pm) and judges will then be asked to provide comments about the final selections for the anthology, via email, by 10th June.
Further information about the project, including the competition rubric and judging criteria can be found here: https://www.mmu.ac.uk/mothertongueothertongue/how-to-enter
Hours expected:
Approx 2 days (12 hours) across 5 days, for initial reading of entries and judging (29th May – 3rd June)
Allow 4 hours for the judging meeting(s) on 6th June.
And a further 2 hours for preparation and submission of your judge’s comments.
Optional attendance at the celebration events on Thursday 3rd July – an additional 4 hours.
So total hours across the 6 weeks of the project would be approx 22 hours
Please apply, with a brief paragraph, giving details of your own language story and your interest in poetry. Tell us why you would like to be included on the judging panel and give detail about any relevant experience. Please also list any languages spoken/written and level of competency.
Associated Badges:
In A Nutshell...
- Collaborate online... to judge a multi-lingual poetry competition with international profile
- Influence and encourage ... by helping young people to be proud of their languages and heritage by showcasing their work in a digital anthology
- Make a difference... encourage a new generation of young people to appreciate diversity of cultures and languages
- Gain Recognition... with an invitation to participate in the national celebration in July and a formal editing credit
- Earn up to 70 Rise points ... which can be recognised within your degree.
Schedule
-
16:00 to 18:00 on 27/05/25
Briefing Session - MTOT judges (everyone must attend online - link to come) Explaining the competition judging process and scoring criteria and confirmation of key dates for delivery. -
29/05/25 to 03/06/25
Reading and Judging of Mother Tongue Other Tongue entries Competition entries will be shared electronically with all judges. Judges will be required to read, comment and score on a shared document. -
16:00 to 18:00 on 06/06/25
Online judging meeting(s) - exact times tbc Online meeting to discuss any discrepancies in judging and to make final selections of pieces to be included in the online anthology -
17:00 to 18:00 on 10/06/25
Submission of judge's comments for anthology Each judge will be asked to write comments about the pieces selected for inclusion. These will be submitted via email. -
12:30 to 20:00 on 03/07/25 - Grosvenor East Building
Mother Tongue Other Tongue Celebration day (Optional PM and Evening) Participating schools are invited to this day of workshops and events and judges are invited to be involved. Some paid opportunities may also be available for those wishing to work this event.