Competitions
A number of our students have participated in national competitions which are often linked to a topic or subject they are studying at school. We actively encourage students to participate in these as we believe it helps students develop their creativity and confidence. Recent successes have been in the Never Such Innocence poetry competition and the Wicked Young Writer Awards.
The following links will take you to the home pages of a range of different competitions.
RSPCA Young Photographer
The aim of the RSPCA Young Photographer Awards is to encourage an interest in photography and an appreciation and understanding of all the amazing animals around us.
- It’s open to anyone aged 18 or under
- All you need is a camera, smartphone or tablet and a passion for animals and nature.
Stephen Spender Prize
Entry Guidelines:
- Students have to translate a poem from any language, ancient or modern, into English and write a short commentary.
- There are examples of entries, suggested poems and other resources on the website.
School Reading List
Competitions
Various writing competitions for children, updated each month.
School Reading List
Wicked Writers: Be the Change students are asked to write a piece of persuasive writing about any environmental issue that is important to them, for example, the climate crisis, pollution or endangered species..
Wicked Writers
A number of competitions for students, from the Great Debate aimed at those age 15 and over to our Write your own historical fiction and a number of different competitions under the umbrella of the Young Historian Scheme.
history competitions
Lots of chances to win all sorts of books, including their ‘star reads’ bundle.
lovereading4kids
Various school-led competitions, plus photography competition (date tbc)
Royal Society of Biology
Get outdoors and record how enriching and inspiring gardens and plants can be and be in with a chance of winning photographic vouchers.
RHS Photography Competition
Betjeman poetry price
The UK’s only creative writing prize specifically for budding historical fiction writers. Students could win a £500 travel grant, an invitation to one of the UK’s best book festivals, and a chance to see their work in print. Stories must be between 800 and 2,000 words, and set in a time before you they born.
Walter Scott prize
Young Art is an annual exhibition of children’s paintings, drawings and prints, held for one week a year at the Royal College of Art. Entries are submitted for judging before being sold at exhibition to raise money for specific research into childhood cancers undertaken at UCL Great Ormond Street Institute of Child Health.
Young Art
Students send an image of their art in with the chance of winning love to shop vouchers.
Environment 2050 Art Competition
Nationwide codebreaking competition for schools from the University of Southampton.
The Cipher Challenge
Students are asked to write an essay of up to 1,000 words excluding references on one of five topics. Date TBC.
Royal Economic Society competitions
KS5 Competitions
Various competitions.
Oxford University Competitions(KS5 only)
These are just a small selection of the very many competitions available to students in the UK. We hope that the list here will encourage and inspire you to be creative and enter a competition!