I am curious as to how the junior class is judged. It strikes me that we have a range of talents, from maybe the age of say, eight years old, right up seventeen years old. This must make it an almost impossible task for the judges to score! I feel that this class is too generic in nature, and maybe some consideration should be given to breaking down either the age groups, subject matter, or experience/skill ratings.
Young members of a modelling club (such as yours) are easy to assess, as you will see their work and progress on a regular basis. In open competition however, things are different. You know little or nothing about the 'guest' enterant...how good is he/she?, is the fair work their own?, is the standard of work too high/low for their age?, etc. In these circumstances, it may be tempting to look towards work you do know, such as known members, although I am sure that this is not the case with your particular club.
One solution may be to pre-register (if possible) the jounior model entries (whilst still not trying to discourage the 'bring on the day' modellers), so that you may have some advanced information to work with. Such information could be gleaned in the form of a questionaire, providing such details as experience, age and model detilas. This may enable you to find out what skill level of modeller you are likely to encounter, and carry out informed scoring accordingly. An incentive for this particular class, notwithstanding the need to raise club funds, would be to make model entry free. I welcome other modellers thoughts and views on this subject.