Your Big Question

What is the Big Question?

The partnership that BT has with ChildLine is all about listening to children and young people and enabling them to get their voice heard. To really create impact and be seen as credible and serious about issues, young people need to ask the right questions to the most relevant people in the best way.

In 2005, the Big Listen focused on the importance of asking questions. In order to give young people across the UK the opportunity to get their voices heard, we have developed some fun games to help them develop their questioning skills.

We also asked you to tell us your BIG QUESTION. What are the things that are important to you? What is the big question that you would like to ask an adult? Our thanks to the young people who wrote in with their Big Questions... take a look at the Big Breakfast 2005 report to see if you can find your Question!

Top tips on questioning

Ask the right question

If you need to find out what a person thinks of an idea, and you want to have an open conversation with them, then you need to ask open questions. These are ones that can’t easily be responded to with a simple yes or no. For example: What do you like most about going to school?

Closed questions are ones that people can respond to with a yes or no answer and often this does not give you all the information you need. An example of this is: Do you like going to school?

It is often quite tricky and you may need to practice. Have you tried the games on the Big Fun page about the different types of questioning? Have a go and master your Big Questioning skills!

What did you say?

Listening to the answer is just as important as asking the question. If you don't listen carefully, you will not know what question to ask next. The games on the Big Fun page, will also help you with your listening skills.

For more guidance on how to ask the best questions, check out our Listening Challenges...

What's your Big Question?

Even though the Big Listen 2005 has ended, we still want to hear what YOUR Big Question is. Email the team and tell us, but remember these key points:

1. Don't make your Big Question too personal. An example of this is... 'Can I stay up an hour later?'
2. We want to hear about the questions you have on current topics, not historic ones. So 'What started the industrial revolution?' would not make it on the page, but 'What can we do to reduce global warming' would be relevant.
3. Keep it short! To help you we have put a word limit on the form below.

When filling in the form below, please ensure that you complete all the boxes.