Village Gala Day Drama

This is a good idea.

or someone else suggested a questionnaire, again that would work too and open for everyone.

I'd keep it as it is. These parents know the deal when their kids go to a different school, and they'd have an advantage wouldn't they? Keep it the same.

Could it just be an open invite to all the schools, send out and put up notices around the village.
Any children interested should enter their name before a certain date.
Name picked at random.
Then luck of the draw.

This is more inclusive and takes out any chance of bias

Mining village here changed to names in a hat quite successfully around 5/10 years ago, used to be on merit, same set up king queen crown bearers and way back when

When I was little it was organised by the church, so Y7 children from Sunday School were picked. More recently it has been the primary school. I see nothing wrong with including the private school child, but realistically, the other kids all know each other and the opportunity to be Queen (May Queen in our case) needs to stay with them, as having a child that the main cohort don’t know as Queen would probably cause the camaraderie of the whole thing to dissolve. There would undoubtedly be resentment. And 11 year olds should have to write essays to ‘win’ it, so the selection should remain unchanged.

Essays aren't a good way to select purely because they could be written by their parents or in your case the pushy grandma.

I would just stick to the usual selection and tell the "put out gran" that it is the choice of her child to send their grandchildren to schools outside the village.

In England myself and our carnival Queen is selected on the same basis.

If you do decide the open it out to all then names in a hat is the best solution for that scenario.

It's so simple to sort all primary 7 children get there name added to a lucky dip and one name is drawn. They could also add boys and it would be a king or a queen

I wonder will many children be interested in sitting down to write an essay ( though tbh the pushy parent brigade will write it for their child), make videos etc? Currently they don't have to do anything extra beyond what they do/how they behave in school anyway.
As a matter of interest what is the criteria for entering the Queen and other competitions, do you have to live and work in the village to qualify given the children have to live in and attend school in order to be able to join in?
Times move on, when the tradition began all the kids did go to the local school, now they don't, can't even as it probably can't accommodate them all anyway. Is the day about celebrating the village you all live in or is it about making some feel like they aren't really part of it.
Names in a hat is the right and fair thing to do in 2025

Definitely this. It is literally the only fair way to do it.

@MelisandeLongfield indeed.
Hated every bloody step and under and over with the ribbons. Or two under one over. Then a skipping bit as the crowd ( such as it was ) admired the pattern on the pole.
We had to do the performance 3 times over the week end . I still twitch a bit when I hear The Floral Dance.
There were 3 routines per session. Can't remember the steps or the music apart from The Floral Dance.

If they're crowned on the day make the rules, they have to live in the village and be in a certain year or school year age to enter. All kids that want to enter put their names into a bucket and the local school headteacher choose a name from the bucket and then the child is crowned to start off all the festivities. Essay writing will take so many more children out of winning. Specially Sen kids and any other child which English isn't their forte. They could be brilliant at sport or at science etc.

Names out of a hat. Anything else far too Labour intensive. Especially for the kids.

Fairest and easiest.

This is fascinating, and I would bet that actually having a role is actually something that kids do remember for a long time. I imagine it's quite important to a lot of them, in a way that for instance parts in plays/on sports teams etc are at that age.

We have something similar in the next village over and the kids apply and there is an 'election' night. Obviously someone always moans about it and there is always someone controversy but it works quite well, and there has been diversity in the various roles chosen.

In this case I'm very surprised that having the roles from only the local school has continued without question. I get that in Scotland most go to the local school and actually don't think that there's anything much wrong with not having the private school involved, but the current rules effectively exclude those with disabilities/special educational needs who attend specialist schools which seems discriminatory, as does not (presumably) ever having a Catholic child (or at least not one that goes to the Catholic school). Which also seems wrong.

Names into a hat but there has to be some sort of barrier to get the name in. Something like an essay, maybe a poster "come to our village fayre" that sort of thing... so they have to make an effort to enter.

@Bronniel I'd be saying to them that you need to give a full year notice on any changes, so this year stays as it has traditionally been and you announce in the next couple of months what the arrangements will be next year. That gives everyone adequate notice of the change and you some time.

Make an application form up. Questions such as what do you contribute to your community, skills, qualities etc. Panel can pick the best.

I would go with schools making a recommendation of deserving village kids who then get put into a draw. Have a leaflet in the local shop / library that kids can take into the more obscure schools.

If there’s a parade, then that would provide an opportunity for the other ‘deserving’ kids to lead the parade directly behind the winners.

“I would allow children to submit their entry in any format they feel confident in”

How would you make it more inclusive than that?

it is one weekend, that as soon as it is over is pretty inconsequential

It feels more important than that though. With all the politics and discussions about selection processes etc. Hey it has even warranted a thread on MN ;-)

Do an election

As a former Maypole dancer at a Well Dressing Festival three years on the bounce

I bet it's not often you have the opportunity to state that as relevant experience to a thread @ladymalfoy45 !😃

As a former Maypole dancer at a Well Dressing Festival three years on the bounce, I can guarantee the decision has already been made.
The three queens we 'danced ' for were the daughters of a school governor, a Building Society executive ,and Used Car salesman.
The families had donated money to the Well Dressing fund.
The families paid for all the dresses and retinue costumes.