OSSAE-UEA Talent Event — A Church Sunday-School Talent Event in the UK, Europe and Africa: Solo Song, Group Song and Elocution for Five Age Groups, Plus Essay Writing and a Quiz for Older Children

Talent Test · Sunday School

Orthodox Syrian Sunday School Association (UK, Europe and Africa) talent event: Solo Song, Group Song and Elocution for five age groups from Infants to Seniors, plus Essay Writing and a Quiz for Intermediate and Seniors.

A ready-made talent event for a Sunday-school association, with a solo song, a small-group song and an elocution for every child from age 4 to 18, and an essay and a quiz added for the two oldest age groups, marked out of 30 and run from unit to zonal to diocese level.

This template models a talent event run by a church Sunday-school association across the United Kingdom, Europe and Africa. Children from many parishes first compete at their own unit, the winners move on to a zonal round, and the zonal winners reach a final at diocese level. It is built from the association’s own 2023 guidelines, with three older editions read only for background, so the structure follows what that circular printed. Dates, venues and entry rules change every year, so confirm the current circular before you reuse anything.

Five competitions are modelled. Solo Song runs for two to three minutes. Group Song also runs for two to three minutes and is sung by a group of three to five children. Elocution is a spoken item of three to five minutes, and the topic is drawn rather than chosen in advance. These three are offered to every age group. Essay Writing, with a thirty-minute writing window, and a Quiz are offered only to the two oldest groups. The guidelines also keep hymn lists for the group song in each age group, and those lists are carried in the registration content rather than modelled as items.

Children are placed in five age groups printed by year of birth as at 1 January 2023: Infants (age 4), Sub Juniors (5 to 7), Juniors, Intermediate and Seniors. The circular states ages only for the two youngest groups, so this template carries placeholder bands of 8 to 10, 11 to 13 and 14 to 18 for the older three, worked out from the printed birth years. A coordinator should adjust them for their own year. Group Song sits in a separate team group for each age band so that a choir and a soloist never compete against each other.

Each of the three performance items is judged on three criteria worth ten marks each, thirty in all. Overrunning the time limit costs half a mark for every thirty seconds, and the running order is decided by lot. The first and second prize winners at each level qualify for the next. The guidelines print placings but no points and no marks for the essay or the quiz, so the template ranks first and second with no points and gives those two items the default total of 100. The unit round is the one modelled here; zonal and diocese rounds are best set up as separate events.

Where this event is run

Sunday-school talent events of this kind are held by church communities in the United Kingdom, Ireland, the rest of Europe and Africa, and equally in North America, the Gulf and India, usually on one weekend with music, speech and written items. The unit, zonal and diocese ladder in this template suits any association that feeds many small local groups into a regional final, and the age-by-birth-year grouping suits any children’s festival that wants one clear cut-off date.

• United Kingdom
• Europe
• Africa

Key facts

• Five competitions: Solo Song, Group Song, Elocution, Essay Writing and Quiz
• Five age groups from Infants (age 4) to Seniors, set by year of birth as at 1 January
• Solo Song and Group Song run 2 to 3 minutes; Elocution 3 to 5 minutes; Essay Writing 30 minutes
• Essay Writing and the Quiz are offered to the two oldest age groups only
• Group Song is sung by three to five children and has its own team group for each age band
• Performance items are marked out of 30; the first and second prize winners qualify from unit to zonal to diocese level

Age groups

10

Competition items

5

Competitions

19

Grade bands

0

Rank awards

4

Age groups

Every candidate is placed into one of these groups by age, and competitions are run per group.

Infants

4From

–

4To

Candidates aged 4 to 4 compete in this group

Sub Juniors

5From

–

7To

Candidates aged 5 to 7 compete in this group

Juniors

8From

–

10To

Candidates aged 8 to 10 compete in this group

Intermediate

11From

–

13To

Candidates aged 11 to 13 compete in this group

Seniors

14From

–

18To

Candidates aged 14 to 18 compete in this group

Infants Group Song

4From

–

4To

Candidates aged 4 to 4 compete in this group

Sub Juniors Group Song

5From

–

7To

Candidates aged 5 to 7 compete in this group

Juniors Group Song

8From

–

10To

Candidates aged 8 to 10 compete in this group

Intermediate Group Song

11From

–

13To

Candidates aged 11 to 13 compete in this group

Seniors Group Song

14From

–

18To

Candidates aged 14 to 18 compete in this group

Competition items

The events themselves — each with the category it belongs to and how judges score it.

Solo Song

MusicMarks

Group Song

MusicMarks

Elocution

OralMarks

Essay Writing

WrittenMarks

Quiz

BibleMarks

Frequently asked questions

Can I change this template after installing it?

Yes — installing it creates a fully configured, live event, not a locked package. Every age group, competition item, rule and scoring setting can be edited afterwards to match exactly what your event actually needs.

Do I need technical knowledge to set this up?

No. Installing a template does the setup work for you; you only need to review the details (dates, unit or house names) and open registration.

Want the fuller picture first? See our guide to singing competition judging criteria guide.