Run a competition with schools

If your group isn’t already working with schools, or it wants to reach out to more schools, approaching them with a clear, tangible way to get involved such as a competition can be an effective opener.

• Seek out a teacher that has shown an interest. If you are contacting the school cold, start with the receptionist or business manager and find out who is best to speak to. Look at the school website or social media feeds first to see if they have a gardening club or eco-club and who runs that
• Once you have the correct contact details, send an email that outlines your programme and its benefits, your request for involvement and then exactly the opportunity pupils can engage in
• Approach several schools, as they will have different priorities and won’t all be able to take up your offer
• Primary schools are often smaller and less complex to negotiate and may have more flexibility in terms of the types of activities they can take up
• If you are invited to a meeting, be prepared, perhaps with a presentation. Outline clearly the ways in which the school could be involved and how it would work, but remaining flexible to different ideas

There are some key areas to think about when you're planning on running a schools’ competition:

• Who would enter your competition?
• How would they enter (the competition process)?
• Prizes
• Type of competition and guidelines

There are three main options for entry categories for a school competition:

• Individual students, e.g. an individual design for a flowerbed, or individual artwork
• Groups, teams or classes of students, e.g. team sculptures created from recycled materials to be displayed in a public setting
• Whole schools, e.g. if you have a good number of schools you could consider a ‘best school garden’ category to your competition, or similar

The format you adopt may depend on the volume of entries you could manage, how many schools are likely to get involved and how many prizes you could provide. For instance, if you're inviting individual entries, and you have five schools to take part, each with six classes of 30 students, you could end up with hundreds of entries! This may be manageable if you have a small team briefed and on hand to judge, but it could demand a considerable amount of time. A competition where classes or whole schools enter could also allow more of a team or collaborative feel to your competition, with all participants recognised. It could also reduce teachers’ and your own workloads and minimise the risk of possible legal implications (see the note below about GDPR and consent).

In addition to the above categories, it may be that youth or uniform groups could enter, or be alternative groups for your competition. In this case, the basic processes would remain the same, but establishing contact may in some cases be more straightforward (search for a local Scouting group or a local Guiding group).

It's important to consider that if you'd like individual young people to enter themselves, rather than through their school or youth group, and you'd be collecting identifying information about them such as names or their photos, you would need to obtain signed parental consent to do so. Always liaise with/contact the child’s teacher/guardian rather than directly with the child at all times to ensure there are no safeguarding issues. You must only collect minimum necessary information e.g. only their name, school year and school. You must not collect their home address, date of birth or phone number.

The parental consent form should also provide a Privacy Notice which includes who you are, the purpose of collecting the personal data (e.g. for running a competition), what the personal data you're collecting will be used for, (e.g. for selecting and contacting the winner), who it will be shared with (e.g. name of the third party), how long their data will be kept for (e.g. information relating to winners will be held for one year, those not selected will be securely destroyed after one month).

If the school is sending you this data, it's their responsibility to ensure the correct permissions are in place, but it's your responsibility to ensure the information is stored securely (e.g. kept in a locked cabinet and access to the information is restricted). 

Read more about GDPR and consent in our GDPR guidance for Community groups (183kB).

You should also make sure you have the teacher/contact’s consent to contact them, either about the competition or into the future. While there is no legal barrier to storing publically available contact details, it is good practice to find out whether the school is happy to be contacted, and this transparency could help to strengthen your relationship into the future.

What process would work best for your competition, for example, would entries each submit a design to be judged, or would they submit a finished project e.g. a piece of garden art, flower display, vegetable bed or planter to be judged?
 
Be aware that a finished in-situ entry would need to be judged in person and therefore could present logistical and time constraints, while electronic or paper-based entries could be judged remotely in a time-limited manner. Some schools may appreciate an in-person visit, particularly if it could be tied into workshops with the pupils to support their gardening programmes. So if this is an option available to you, it may be worth gauging the interest and ideas of a school or schools you are in contact with before designing your competition. If you have a couple of different ideas, you could speak to some of the schools to get their input on which ones they would prefer to enter or which formats/prizes would motivate them.

Prizes can help to incentivise entries, so consider what could you could offer e.g. certificates, gardening vouchers, seeds or plants. Note that public recognition can be highly motivating on its own, even without a prize, or alongside a small prize. Also consider that if multiple schools are entering it may be desirable to be able to offer a prize per school to reward engagement.

It may also be worth considering that business sponsorship or ‘in kind’ support for the competition could potentially provide assistance for a larger project. Competitions may be something that a local business could be willing to sponsor, as it offers an opportunity to give back to the community, as well as to demonstrate this act with public recognition of their support. This relationship could potentially also lead to future funds, more support for the whole process and more enticing prizes.

Read more about fundraising for your group or project. 

There are any number of competitions you could run with schools but we've collected a few ideas based on the experience of Britain in Bloom groups, community groups and RHS Community Outreach teams. They can be developed and adapted to suit the needs of your group and the schools you work with. 

A competition that involves the designing of a planter or bed can be a great way to engage schools directly in your Bloom campaign. Ideally it would include the final creation of the beds designed in a prominent public location to celebrate and reward the winning entries, while offering an appealing incentive to enter.
 
Keep in mind that if you are asking children to design something that would be on display, they won’t necessarily understand the restrictions that there would be on shapes, designs, or flower types, so make any restrictions clear where necessary, eg. give option for colours of the plants you know will work well in the space to ensure that the design could be implemented, and stipulate size and format requirements.

The process:

1. Schools are contacted with competition theme, any specifications and entry forms
2. Students design their flower or vegetable bed or planter fitting the theme on entry sheets
3. Teachers send in the entry forms
4. Designs are judged and a select number of winners (ideally one from each school) selected
5. The winners help plant up their beds and receive a prize and recognition in a public or school-based ceremony
6. The beds/planters remain on public display for the season and promotions encourage community members to view them

Example: 
Amersham in Bloom’s ‘Design a Flowerbed’ competition for schools – where pupils submit designs on a theme for summer planting of four prominent public garden beds – has grown in popularity each year. In 2018, all schools and a total of 450 pupils entered. ‘When we started the competition, we visited each school to encourage participation.’ explains group coordinator, Steve. ‘The success of the competition has helped us to reach out to the younger generations, teaching the children the benefits of environmental responsibility, but also about civic pride.’

How it works

• Pupils from all primary and middle schools throughout the town are invited to create an impactful design using contrasting colours at the beginning of each year. A letter (sent to the schools at the end of the previous year) explains the benefit of taking part, emphasising the difference Bloom makes to the town, the central high-visibility location of the competition beds, and that each include a plaque with the winning student’s name, along with a picture of each of the four winning designs
• The letter explains that the judges will be looking for a design with impact, which could provide the basis for a striking flower display. It says the competition aims to allow an opportunity for students to express their creativity, as well as to be educational, allowing the children to gain hands-on gardening experience
• Teachers send in the entry forms and designs are created by students on the designated theme
• Designs are judged and four winners selected (ideally one from each school), and the winners are presented with a certificate and a prize presented by the mayor at a ceremony
• The four winners join a volunteer day to plant the signature flowerbeds, working alongside experienced gardeners, during the summer ahead of judging day

Amersham In Bloom use the following guidelines for the entries:

• Block colours
• Straight lines
• No lettering or numbering
• Usually up to four colours (sometimes with specific options)

Encouraging schools to create something such as mini garden bed, garden sculpture or mini meadow on a particular theme can make for a rewarding and engaging activity for pupils.

This option would ideally require a location to showcase them to the community as a further reward and to engage the public. Entries could be shortlisted or judged at the design stage, inviting finalists or winners to create their entries on site to limit the number of displays and logistics involved.

In 2012, London in Bloom ran a competition (in conjunction with the Olympic Games), asking schools to create mini meadows in unusual containers throughout the capital, an idea which could be adopted at a smaller scale.

Possible processes

1. Schools are contacted with competition theme and any specifications
2. Whole schools enter and work together on the design
3. When it’s near the time for judging, teachers and students build the designs in a community location
4. Designs/creations are judged by judges and by members of the public
5. Prizes awarded to winners

Or

1. Schools contacted with competition theme and any specifications
2. Whole schools enter and work on the design
3. Designs submitted and judged
4. Finalists selected by judging panel go on to create their designs in a community location
5. Winners selected and prizes awarded

Some larger Bloom campaigns run competitions that judge a whole school garden. There may also be categories of best garden, such as ‘best school garden for wildlife’, for food growing, for reuse or sustainability, or best outdoor classroom, for example. If you have a selection of categories these could potentially be sponsored by individual businesses.

If you are setting up a ‘best school garden’ competition, you will need to make clear what criteria the garden would be judged on and what elements you would be looking for. You would also need to make clear the process for which schools should send in their entry. If you are supplying a template form make sure it is easy to use and understand, as well as any requirements for the type of images and the sharing of these.

How it could work:

1. Schools contacted with competition guidelines, any necessary templates or forms and how they can apply to take part
2. Schools begin work on their garden within the timeline given, making use of guidance and support or tips where possible (this could be as simple as referring them to the RHS Campaign for School Gardening)
3. Schools submit evidence at the end of the season/entry date into requested form/template, such as, images and text about what they have done in the garden and why
4. Judges shortlist entries based on applications and set criteria and visit a select view
5. Winners selected and prizes awarded, including one for participating for all entries

A competition that encourages school entries to grow the largest plant, such as a sunflower, or vegetable, such as a beanstalk, potato or pumpkin, can be a fun and straightforward way to engage young people. Growing tips, facts and suggested related topic ideas to explore in class could also be provided to teachers to encourage further learning and engagement.

As this is a measurable objective competition based on size it could also be deemed more ‘fair’ and easier to judge. Healthy competition between the schools during the summer could also be enjoyed with the sharing of images on social media, for example.

How it could work:

1. Schools contacted with competition guidelines and they apply to take part
2. Each school is given the same vegetable seeds to grow and ideally some resources/advice to help (there will likely be existing online RHS advice on the variety selected if needed)
3. Schools grow giant vegetables over the summer
4. Weights or heights estimated on a particular date/during a particular week in the autumn
5. Winners selected and prizes awarded

Quite a few Bloom groups have run art-based competitions with schools as a way of encouraging engagement with plants in a classroom setting. Some options could be a poster design competition, which could result in a poster template to be used to promote your Bloom campaign, Christmas cards design competition, or as Royal Tunbridge Wells in Bloom has done – a campaign based competition. In recent years, the group has run a ‘Bee Art’ competition, encouraging children to create posters that help communicate the threat to bees and what can be done to help them. The posters are then used throughout the town to help educate and influence residents in a friendly and community-focused way.
 
For more ideas on engaging schools and activities to share with young people visit the RHS Campaign for School Gardening website. There you will also find details of training courses for leaders interested in developing their skills in gardening education for young people.