Ciarnan helferty biography
Ciarnan Helferty is co-editor of School's Question Time on 8 July |
One of 12 young people who won the chance to help make the programme, he describes in the final instalment of his online diary how the experience went.
Read Ciarnan's diary chronologically from the start or go straight to the latest update...
Click here to see how Ciarnan coped as editor
April
The four winning schools are selected, including Ciarnan's school, Oakgrove Integrated College in Northern Ireland.
I think I initially underestimated the scale of this programme and the people I would meet.
Putting together a special edition of the BBC's premier political programme is not going to be easy, even with help from the regular experts.
And working alongside the heavyweights - politicians and producers alike, not to mention David Dimbleby himself - is daunting to say the least.But I wanted to get more involved in citizenship and politics at large, and this is my opportunity.
How will so many of us (12 pupils from four different schools across the UK) - all lacking television experience, and all with our own ideas - come to a consensus for our programme?
6 and 7 May
The schools meet in Birmingham to thrash out ideas for their programme, with some help from the production team.
David Dimbleby, the production team, and the pupils and teachers from the other schools soon lay my fears to rest. All are upbeat and extremely pleasant.
This is a chance which would not ordinarily be made available to young people.
And it is a personal challenge - integrating with different students from three other schools across the UK, all with so many different opinions and different backgrounds, but ultimately one objective.
THE SCHOOLS TAKING PART Oakgrove Integrated College, Northern Ireland Northumberland Park Community School, Tottenham St. Edward's College, Liverpool Southlands High School, Lancashire |
Time is pressured. With an edition of the programme to watch being produced on Thursday, we only have a few hours left in the day.
First, the panel: we think about groupings of the main political parties, plus two others, narrowing the options down to five or six possible guests in each list.
As for the format, we only have to stick loosely to the status quo and are free to introduce our own ideas.
I feel the typical Question Time format works the best, though perhaps with questions relating to the whole year, as this will be the last programme in the series. Although the programme is being made by young people, I think it should be applicable to everybody.
But others want a younger audience, with questions focussing more on young people's issues than pure politics.
Ciaran McFeely, co-producer for the panel, gets to grips with technology |
The lines of communication are kept open, with the ideas flowing well. We all got involved for a reason, after all, so we all have things we want to express.
It works better than I thought it would, with some compromises, and we manage to find a coherent formula for the event, even if it is only an outline at this stage.
Liaising over the next few weeks will be crucial to deciding on the final product.
30 June
One week to go before transmission.
I am sure the programme will be an ultimate success and will act as an example of what young people can achieve.
The pressure is certainly mounting now, as recently we have been in contact every day.
The panel has just been finalised. I hope none of them pulls out.
Although I believe the programme will be a success, there is still an element of me that worries about things going wrong |
As I am acting as editor for the programme, I will have to select the questions to be used - and I am very thankful that the real editor will be there to help.
I already know that I have got more out of this experience than I expected. I decided to take part because of my interest in politics and citizenship, but since the trip to Birmingham I have become much more interested in the media.
I have been talking with my teacher about my expectations.
Although I believe the programme will be a success, there is still an element of me that worries about things going wrong - and fears the inevitable put-down: "you can't trust young people".
I hope we can prove any sceptics wrong.
8 July
Day of transmission
I never expected to be in such a position of power.
We have just finished recording the programme. I had had some reservations about how it would actually work and thought we wouldn't really be given the whole programme to produce - but in fact we made all the decisions ourselves.
Even though I was alongside the editor, he didn't intervene.
With three million viewers, that makes you feel out of your depth.
I had been worried the questions wouldn't work - that the audience wouldn't respond or the panel wouldn't relate. I had somehow to pick questions that would provide a balanced debate.Having had to change two of the panellists at the last minute I already had a taste of how things don't necessarily run as smoothly as planned.
I had thought there would be no hiccups - but it was much more hectic than I envisaged. Deadlines lasted a matter of seconds, not hours or minutes, and working within those limits we still had to be careful not to let standards fall.
Half way through the programme we also decided to change the order of the questions, to go with the direction the audience seemed to be taking the debate.
But once the programme was in full flow, I soon felt relaxed and comfortable - the hard work seemed worth it, and we were in charge.
The panel was excellent, the audience brilliant.
It was fantastic meeting Boris Johnson, and he and Jimmy Carr had me in hysterics.
The programme certainly had its own flavour: while typical in some respects, really very funny.
And I hope we have gone some way, as Director General of the BBC Mark Thomson said, towards disproving the theory that "politics and young people don't mix".
Schools Question Time Challenge is a UK-wide scheme, supported by BT in association with the Institute for Citizenship and by the BBC, to help pupils develop their citizenship and communication skills by producing local School Question Time events.