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Schools Poetry Competition

The competition goes live from 1st February 2025 and closes on the 28th February 2025.

Who are we?

Schools OUT is the LGBT+ education charity #educatingOUTprejudice and #Usuallising LGBT+ lives since 1974. We work with valued partners like yourselves to educate OUT prejudice, raise LGBT+ visibility by usualising the full diversity of LGBT+ lives to ensure our educational institutions are safe, inclusive and support LGBT+ young people’s well-being.

Schools OUT founded LGBT+ History Month in 2004 and first celebrated in February 2005. 20 years later, we are celebrating the 21st LGBT+ History Month this year. Find out more here.

What is the schools poetry competition?

The UK LGBT+ History Month theme for 2025 is Activism and Social Change. Poetry is intrinsically linked with activism and has been used throughout history to tell our stories, challenge oppression, raise awareness, and inspire change. Poets amplify underrepresented voices, and many poets use their work to expose injustices and advocate for human rights. This is one of the reasons Schools OUT appointed a LGBT+ History Month poet laureate – award winning Adam Lowe, who will be one of the judges on the panel for this competition.

We are inviting entries from students in key stages 2-5 to write a short poem which embodies the theme “Activism and Social Change” exploring this through the lens of LGBT+ people who have contributed to furthering the rights of LGBT+ people and/or other marginalised groups within the UK. The competition provides an opportunity to engage students in exploring this years theme and LGBT+ history in more depth this LGBT+ History Month.

A winner will be chosen from each of three age categories. Each category winner will have their poem published on our website, and will receive a £100 Love to Shop gift voucher and a book (either ‘What does LGBT+ Mean?’ or ‘Have Pride’).

How do you take part?

The competition is free to enter and entries can be submitted from 9am on 1st February 2025 until 5pm on 28th February 2025 using the form at the bottom of this page. Please read the competition rules and poetry guidelines below before entering.

Poetry Guidelines

The points listed below are for teachers/youth leaders to explain to the groups and/or individuals entering the competition.

General

  • The competition is free to enter and is only for schools, colleges, and youth groups.
  • A winner will be chosen from each of the three categories. Each category winner will receive a £100 Love to Shop gift voucher, and a book (either ‘What does LGBT+ Mean?’ or ‘Have Pride’). The winning poem from each of the three categories will be published on our website and social media.
  • Each institution/organisation may submit one entry per each of the categories below.
Age 7 – 11 (category 1)Age 11 – 16 (category 2)Age 16-19 (category 3)
Key Stage 2Key Stages 3 & 4Key Stage 5
  • Tertiary institutions (FE Colleges, youth groups etc) should also enter one overall selected winner.
  • Organisations can submit one entrance to category 1 (age 7-11 / KS 2), one entrance to category 2 (age 11-16 / KS 3&4), and one entrance to category 3 (age 16-19 / KS 5).

Content

  • The poem should embody the theme “Activism and Social Change” exploring this through the lens of LGBT+ people who have contributed to furthering the rights of LGBT+ people and/or other marginalised groups within the UK. This could include highlighting LGBT+ people in history or the present.
  • The poem should be no more than 400 words.
  • The poem should be no more than 30 lines.
  • The poem should be written primarily in English.
  • The poem must have been created by the credited author.
  • Poems must not have been created with any input from AI.
  • The poem must be submitted in written form as a PDF or word documents. If the original poem was not produced in this way, the work may be transcribed from an original hand-written or spoken poem either by the entrant or a teacher, support worker, or youth worker.

Competition Rules

By entering this competition you are agreeing to abide by the following rules:

  • This competition is only for schools, colleges, or youth groups.
  • All schools, colleges, and youth groups wishing to enter must submit their entry using the online form including the poem(s) and accompanying information attached before the deadline of 5pm 28th February 2025.
  • Entries must be clearly labelled with category (1-3), entrant’s age, name and organisation details.
  • Plagiarised entries will be disqualified.
  • Only one entry per category per organisation.
  • The competition will be judged on in March by a panel of judges from Schools OUT and special guest judges, whose decisions are final. No correspondence will be entered into regarding their decision.
  • A winner will be chosen from each of the three categories. Each category winner will receive a £100 Love to Shop gift voucher, and a book (either ‘What does LGBT+ Mean?’ or ‘Have Pride’).
  • All winners will be informed in April, and the prizes sent to the school/organisation to be presented to the winners in April 2025.
  • The poem must be submitted in written form as a PDF or word documents. If the original poem was not produced in this way, the work may be transcribed from an original hand-written or spoken poem either by the entrant or a teacher, support worker, or youth worker.
  • The poem must not have won another competition. The poem must not have been published in association with another competition.
  • The copyright of the poem remains with the author, however by entering the competition authors of the winning poems grant permission to Schools OUT the right to publish and/or broadcast the winning poem, and to do so before other parties.
  • Authors of the winning poems grant Schools OUT the irrevocable and non-exclusive licence to re-publish the work in perpetuity, included but not limited to publication of the work on our website and social media, and publication (in print or online) of the work as part of an anthology or as an educational resource.
  • Your school/organisation is responsible for seeking permission from the young people’s legal guardians for their names to be made public. Should a young person wish to remain anonymous, only the school/organisation and age category will be publicised.
  • All entries must be made through the nominated adult contact at the school/organisation involved. No direct contact will be made with entrants, and you cannot enter the competition outside of a school/organisation. If you have any questions regarding this, you can email admin@schoolsoutuk.org.

Entry Form