There are lots of competitions out there, some with a really wide choice of categories to enter and others very specific to year groups or subjects.  These first ones are national or international competitions; scroll down for ones run by universities and summer schools.  Check out the Awards page for even more ideas!

​

​

STEM Competitions

https://www.thebigbang.org.uk/the-big-bang-competition/

https://teentech.com/awards/

https://www.makeablechallenge.com/

https://triumphdesignawards.co.uk/

https://www.appsforgood.org/

https://bieacompetition.org.uk/ (British International Education Association STEM Competition)

https://iymc.info/en/ (International Youth Math Challenge)

https://isaacphysics.org/ (problem solving competition)

http://sciencechallenge.org/competition/about (a science-debate competition)

https://oxsci.org/schools/ (essay competition)

www.medicineadmissions.co.uk (for aspiring medics)

www.rgs.org/schools/competitions/young-geographer-of-the-year/ (Royal Geographical Society competition; fixed number of entries per school so you'll need your teachers to get involved)

https://persecoding.net/ (for students in years 7-11 working in teams; Jan - March)

https://www.bebras.uk/ (computing challenge; held in November)

https://oucc.uk/ (Oxford University Computing Challenge; Feb-Mar - open to top scorers from the Bebras competition above)

​

Girls only:

http://www.girlsthreeminutescience.org/ (you have 3 mins to get your message across!  1 Jan deadline)

https://www.ncsc.gov.uk/cyberfirst/girls-competition

​

​

Organisations including National Grid, BP, Shell often run competitions for schools; you'll need to search on their company websites for current opportunities.

There are also Physics, Maths, Chemistry, Biology and Informatics Olympiads which you enter via school.

​

​

CREATIVE Competitions

https://youngartists.royalacademy.org.uk/ (fine art)

https://www.ippawards.com/the-competition/ (photography)

https://slam.poetrysociety.org.uk/ (poetry)

https://poetrysociety.org.uk/competitions/foyle-young-poets-of-the-year-award/ (poetry)

https://thosethatbreathe.com/ (monthly creative writing competition)

http://ygd.bafta.org/competition (Game Design competition)

http://baftakids.org/competitions (Presenter competition)

bbc.co.uk/nssa (BBC Young Writers’ Award with Cambridge University invites young people in the UK aged between 14 -18 years to submit short stories of up to 1,000 words)

www.bbc.co.uk/youngcomposer (national competition, submissions due in June each year)

​

BUSINESS Competitions

www.res.org.uk/education/young-economist-of-the-year (Royal Economic Society Essay competition; July deadline)

https://iea.org.uk/essay-competition/ (Institute of Economic Affairs essay competition, Dec deadline)

www.10xchallenge.org.uk - (start with £10 and make a profitable business in 4 weeks)

www.young-enterprise.org.uk - (run a business for a year under the guidance of a volunteer)

​

​

OTHER Competitions

https://www.royalcwsociety.org/the-qcec (essay competition from the Queen's Commonwealth Society)

https://www.esu.org/competitions/psc/ (Debating competition; must apply through your school)

https://www.rotarygbi.org/projects/young-people/competitions/ (including categories such as Peacemaker, Chef, Artist, Photographer, Filmmaker, Writer, Environmentalist)

​