Stephen Spender Prize
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Welcome to the Schools Laureate Prize!
Our Schools Laureate Prize is designed for teachers submitting on behalf of students. Each participating school may submit up to five students’ entries in each age category (max. one entry per student).
Entry guidelines:
– Translate a published poem from any language into English.
– Produce a creative response from the list below to accompany the translation.
Age categories
- KS1-2 (Primary: P1-7)
- KS3 (Secondary: S1-3)
- KS4 (Secondary: S4)
- KS5 (Sixth form/Further education: S5-6)
Please read the ‘Schools Laureate Prize’ section of our Terms and Conditions page before submitting your entries.
Join us in nurturing literary talent and celebrating linguistic diversity through the Schools Laureate Prize!
Entry to the Schools Laureate Prize is free! The deadline for submissions is midnight BST on 31 July.
Creative response options
To accompany their translation, students can provide any one of the following:
- A written commentary (max. 300 words)
- A video or audio commentary (max. 1 minute)
- A video or audio reading of the translated poem, or a passage from it (max. 1 minute)
- An original visual representation of the poem (e.g. a freehand drawing or collage)
- An original piece of creative writing inspired by / building on the themes of the poem (e.g. a short story, an original English-language poem, or a non-fiction essay/think piece; max. 300 words)
Further guidance and inspiration for all of the above can be found on our Guide to the Creative Response page, and additional guidance for written commentaries is available on our Guide to the Commentary page.

Eligibility criteria
The poems your students translate can be from any language, ancient or modern, and can encompass all forms and genres, including rap, song lyrics, spoken word and slam poetry.
Pair and group entries are welcome, with all contributors credited on the submission form. Translations from BSL are also encouraged, accompanied by a link to a BSL video of the original poem.
Resources & support
For a step-by-step guide to preparing and entering your students for the prize, visit our Guide for Teachers page, and explore our Stephen Spender Prize Teaching Resources for poem inspiration, classroom activities, poetry translation tips and more.
If you have any queries that aren’t covered there or on the prize Terms and Conditions and FAQ pages, please email us at prize@stephen-spender.org for further assistance.
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