What the judges are looking for
You do not need a big project, a big budget or a big school. Here is what actually wins.
Who judges the Awards
Entries are judged by our Young Trustees, people aged 16 to 24 who sit on Better Planet Education's board, working alongside our staff team.
The four things we look for
Was it really the students'?
Whose idea was it? Who made the decisions, did the organising, had the awkward conversation with the site manager? We expect teachers to support and encourage, because that is the job. But a project designed and delivered by staff is not what these Awards are for.
Did it change anything?
Numbers help: kilos of batteries collected, blazers rehomed, a paper bill that fell. But a changed habit counts too, and so does a changed mind. Tell us what is different now that was not different before.
Was there thinking behind it?
Did your students work out what the problem actually was before deciding what to do about it? Did they check whether it was working? Did they change course when something did not work? Good projects rarely run in a straight line, and we would far rather read about the bend in the road than a version where everything went smoothly.
Is it well told?
Can we follow what happened, in your students' own words? A plain account of a real project will always beat a polished account of a vague one.
What we do not award marks for: the size of the school, the size of the budget, or the size of the project. A small, sharp, genuinely student-run idea will beat a large one the students had little to do with.
Not got a project yet? Nine ideas to start one
There are seven months until the deadline, easily enough time to start something, run it, and tell us how it went. Here are some ideas that work well in secondary schools.
Audit the bins
Spend a week finding out what is actually being thrown away, and where. Almost every project worth doing starts here, and the findings are usually startling enough to get other students interested.
Set up a battery collection point
Batteries are hazardous if they are discarded in the environment, but they are easy to collect. Your local authority or a national scheme will usually take them.
Run a uniform and kit swap
Blazers, PE kit, shoes, revision guides. Popular with parents, and it saves families real money, which is a good argument to take to your head.
Take on the lunch queue
Count the single-use items sold in a week, then work with catering to cut the number. Slow, unglamorous, and one of the highest-impact things a student group can do.
Declare a paper amnesty
Find out how much paper the school gets through, then set a target. Departments respond well to being shown their own figures.
Start a repair cafe
A lunchtime, a table, and a few people who can fix a zip, a bike or a laptop. Add staff and sixth formers to the mix.
Campaign for refills
Map the working water fountains, fix or campaign for the ones that are not, and hand out refillable bottles to Year 7.
Make a wildlife corner
A patch of unmown grass, a hedge left alone, a few boxes and a pond. Small, permanent, and it keeps giving long after the students who started it have left.
Run a walk-and-wheel week
Count how everyone travels to school, then try to shift the number, and find out what is stopping people.
Five tips for a strong entry
Let the students write it
Start with the problem
Not "we set up a recycling scheme", but "we found 40 kilos of paper in the general waste every week".
Show it
One before-and-after photograph is worth two hundred words.
Count something
Anything. Weight, number of students, number of bottles, hours given up.
Be honest about what did not work
It makes the rest of the entry more believable, not less.
Think your students have a shot?
They probably do. Entries close on Friday 23 April 2027.
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