How do I win stars?
Stars are awarded to the comments that show an excellent use of the Topical Talk skills.
Skills are really important for understanding the news and they help you do well in school and in life! So everything we do in Topical Talk helps you to develop them. Look at each skill below to get some tips about how to do them well on the Hub.
You can win stars on a comment, for suggesting a new discussion that we choose to make into a post and for winning the weekly competition!
Winning is great, but remember, being on the Student Hub is not all about the stars. The most important thing is that you learn new things, develop your skills and enjoy connecting with other young people from around the world.

Listening
To understand the news we need to listen for information and hear what others think about it - this helps us work out we think. Three ways you can show good listening are...
- Build on others' views - such as agreeing, disagreeing, adding examples
- Ask questions to others
- Identify why people think the way they do

Speaking
Speaking on the Student Hub usually involves writing. Speaking allows us to work out what we think and helps us express our opinions. Show your speaking side by...
- Use appropriate language and words that relate to the topic
- Give reasons for what you think and give evidence and examples
- Adapt your writing for a purpose - for example, if you're trying to persuade someone of something, how will you communicate with this goal in mind?

Problem-solving
This is important because it lets us work out if something is true or false and helps us understand what problems need solutions to. Good ways to problem solve are...
- Find out information for ourselves - and tell us where you found it!
- Weighing up pros and cons or advantages and disadvantages of something to help you come to a good decision
- Find the causes of a problem - look at why something went wrong in the first place

Creativity
Creativity lets us come up with ideas and helps us foresee what might happen next. Our top tips for showing creativity are...
- Give suggestions that no one else has come up with yet
- See a question or issue from other perspectives
- Help others to see a question or issue from another angle
Comments (5)
I think we need to apply our listening and problem solving skills in order to get stars (⭐) for example, If we have climate change we will listen to the news and try to solve the problem using problem solving skills
i think this is a fair way to reward students with praise
i think this is a good idea however i believe that they should make it harder to get stars but when pupils reach a certain amount of stars you could get an avatar item because it would be a cool cosmetic to have a profile avatar that is customisable
I believe that it’s fair because students get awarded for them doing a good job and using topical talk properly and that I can help them win there schoolprizes
I think the way we get stars is by applying all this skills which are Creativity, Problem- Solving, Listening and speaking when posting comments. We have to be mindful of the ways we use them if we want to get stars, and we should also apply this skills in our lives so that we can make a change in the world. Getting a star means you are applying the skills in your comments, your life and it making sense. But if you are not getting stars that means you are not using your skills in your comments and in your life and it is not making sense. Even if you don't stars, keep pushing then eventually you will start to improve in your skills and get stars.