Village Gala Day Drama

[Bronniel]

I live in a small Scottish Village, every year there is a Gala Day, I imagine it is similar to a Village Fete in England, but basically It is a lot of local businesses, food vans, live music and some little rides for the kids in the local park, with a parade around the village and a fancy dress competition, it is fairly popular. Also a lot of other events in the village on the weekend surrounding it and competitions for the kids.
Every year there is a Gala Queen, plus some other big roles like crown bearer, maids etc. Basically the Queen gets crowned to kick the day off and prior to that leads the parade in a horse and carriage. It's all very much set in tradition but still popular and the kids enjoy it.
Traditionally the Gala Queen and the rest of the Gala party has been selected by the primary school in the village, and consists of P7s, the head teacher picks them and they are chosen based on behaviour/attainment etc. throughout the year. My own kids viewed it as quite a bit accolade to be chosen and it seems like a big deal to the kids. This method though has had its controversies as obviously not every child in the Village attends the village school with some going to other schools for various reasons and others going to say the catholic school or occasionally the odd who does the 30+ minute commute to a private school, it also excludes any kids who attend the schools for additional needs as these aren't in the village. However it has always been the primary schools pick.
I am on the Gala Committee and this year there is a push to change the allocation method, basically to some sort of system where any Primary 7 aged child who lives in the village or surrounding farms/one hamlet where all the kids also go to the local school, would be able to enter. The top ideas right now are some sort of essay writing competition or a competition where kids submit "evidence of excellence" be it a video of a dance they have learnt, art they have done, sports awards etc. The essay seems to be the popular choice but some fear that it will mean just the smartest kids get the chance to be part of it. It's said that either the committee would pick or we could get some locals to pick (so a panel of maybe the head teacher, the minister at the local church etc). The idea for the essay writing competition is they would write an essay on the history of the village or something similar.

However the issue is, this same year one of the most vocal members of the Gala Committee has a grandchild who is in Primary 7, but at a private school, so wouldn't be eligible under the historical system as despite living in the village, doesn't attend the local school. About half of the committee are against any changes as it is set in tradition and they feel the change is purely to benefit this members grandchild and future grandchildren. They also feel that it is unfair to ask the children of the local state school, many from lower income backgrounds to compete against private school kids on either the essay front or the hobby front. Others feel it is a necessary change as the days of all the kids going to the local school are over, and lots of the kids at the local school aren't from the village now.

It is creating quite the divide and a lot of upset so I'm looking to see what others think as we seem to be in a deadlock.

So
YABU - The traditional method should stay
YANBU - Time to update so all the kids in the village can be involved

(I know this seems trivial but it is the source of many a head ache for me right now and it is the height of village drama for our sleepy little place).

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.

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.

Fairest and easiest.

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

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.

@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.

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

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

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

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.

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.

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

This is more inclusive and takes out any chance of bias

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.

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.

This is a good idea.

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

Try it for one year and see how it goes.

Nrtft

The current system is definitely unfair if not all of the children attend the village school. But agree essay writing only benefits the clever kids. It’s probably too late but what about a ballot of sorts, children are put forward on their merits by their HT or teachers, churches, community groups and then of the names put forward one is chosen?

We have similar were we live accept its church focused. Traditionally the event started with the churches in the community gathering to show a solidarity regardless of religion. Each church has its own Queen, ring barer and retinue. Most of the churches have a school attached so it’s quite often a child from the school who gets the role but not always. My DDs attend one of the catholic schools, the requirement for being picked is done on children who are doing their first communion that year, they are picked in church so the child must be present at Sunday mass. This means it’s a child from the church community, most just happen to attend the school. The children (or parents) decide if they want to be put forward, if they do their name is put in an hat and drawn. Other churches have different criteria. These days the event is massive with each school walking and other groups like cubs, brownies, they all choose their representatives differently.

This sounds rather like the rationale in an episode of Midsummer Murders. 🤔

So the village I grew up in had a carnival. The carnival had a queen and her 4 attendants who led the parade of floats around the village onto the green for the carnival to start. The attendents where aged 7 to 11 and the queen 12-16. This time of year the committee who I was on as an adult held a disco in the village hall called the carnival queen disco. The years previous attendents would each draw a name for the new attendents and then the queen would choose and crown the next queen. The only stipulation for entering yourself forward was you had to have your parents permission and live in the village or attend the local primary school. The queen had to live in the village as all the high-schools where out of location or had to have previously attended the local primary school as we schooled the children from the hamlet a couple of miles away as this hamlet and no amenities. I feel this is a fair choice..I was lucky enough to be an attendent and the queen and if it had been a choice system I would never have had the opportunity because my mum wouldn't have allowed it as she was the chairperson of the committee so it screams fix. I think it is the only fair equal system. I'm.all for tradition but also these are children and need to be treated equally. It is clear that this person wants their grandchild to be involved. If it is a fair ballot then they have fair odds against everyone else.

I'm getting Hot Fuzz vibes.

The Greater Gooodddd....

Tricky one. This ‘excellence’ idea will basically be a competition of how creative/supportive the parents are, not the child. Any way of deciding it is going to exclude someone though - even if you decided to make it a mass pageant that included every child in the village in a themed costume or something, some kids would still be left out as their parents couldn’t afford a costume/couldn’t be arsed to get them to rehearsals etc.

I am in Scotland too and completely understand the sort of event you are talking about - it's a big deal! Names out of a hat is totally the wrong approach, you are looking for people to represent the village and who are well-behaved enough to sit on the back of a float, smile and wave and generally be a good kid.

I see the argument that it should be open to all parish children or village children which is probably how it was originally intended as all the children in the parish woulsd have gone to the local school. I think it probably is time to change the rules, but it is galling that this person's child will benefit.

I’m utterly shocked to read that you exclude the Catholic school. Why is this happening? You do realise the whole committee is breaking the law by excluding a state school because of its religion?

I lived near Glasgow as a teenager in the 1980s and the bigotry against Catholic people was off the scale in lots of areas. I thought things would have moved on by now but obviously not.

I'm in a similar place in Scotland and it was extended to include the next hamlet as the kids all came to town for school. I don't think the Private school kids are included as they would have to organise time off for the practice and so on.
Our lot hand in an application form, filled out by them, explaining why they should be the Queen and maids etc.
Last year the Queen had a disability. One year one maid had made it on to junior bake-off. One year the Queen was a super dancer....
Most of the time, the ancient families do influence the outcome....but "it's ay been!"