Students from The High Arcal School in Sedgeley are swotting up on current affairs as they prepare to host BBC Radio 4′s Any Questions?, which will be broadcast live from the school on Friday 9th December and hosted by Jonathan Dimbleby.

High Arcal School pupils catching up with the latest news headlines

The school has been chosen by the BBC to host this event to coincide with the 50th anniversary of the school and to celebrate the success the school has had in recent years.

The panel will include the Secretary of State for Defence Philip Hammond MP, Shadow Home Office Minister Gloria De Piero MP, Former Chief Constable of Thames Valley Police Sir Charles Pollard and Daily Telegraph columnist Mary Riddell.

Any Questions? is broadcast live on Radio 4 on Friday evenings, following the 8pm news. The programme is repeated on the radio on Saturday lunchtimes at 1.15pm, and is followed at 2pm by the Any Answers? phone-in, giving listeners a chance to join in the debate by calling or emailing Jonathan Dimbleby.

The programme travels throughout the UK. The audience submits questions on the day of the broadcast, and then these are sifted by the producer who selects ten questions across a range of subjects. Normally, six or seven of them are included in the actual broadcast.

One of the stringent and unchanging rules of Any Questions? is that the panel never sees the questions in advance; the panellists hear them for the first time at the same moment the audience in the hall and at home does.

Tickets to be in audience are available free from The High Arcal School by e-mailing bbcradio4@high-arcal.dudley.sch.uk or ring 0845 1550411.