Win a trip to a TSL Summit for Students Worldwide in the Trust for Sustainable Living Essay Competition 2021
Submit your essay addressing the theme: Protecting biodiversity, for the 2021 Trust for Sustainable Living Essay Competition.
School children from around the world will share their ideas to help protect the Earth’s biological diversity in this year’s edition of the essay and in virtual debates.
Winning students will be awarded various rewards from honourable mentions to award certificates.
Application Deadline: 23rd December, 2020.
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Benefits
The following prizes will be awarded to participants in the competition:
- One overall Grand Prize trophy winner will receive a free international trip to a TSL Summit, including a £500 stipend .
- The Top 10 essay medallists will receive eco-friendly e-medals with redeemable gift tokens included.
- All participating Teacher Champions, Essay Finalists, and International Debate participants, will receive personalised e-certificates.
For the Essay Competition:
- Certificates will be awarded to the Grand Prize Winner and all students receiving recognition as a Finalist or Honourable Mention.
- Participating Teacher Champions will also be awarded a certificate in recognition of their work in inspiring and encouraging student engagement in sustainability education.
For the Sustainability Challenge:
- Certificates will be awarded to all Shortlisted Finalists, and to the overall Sustainability Challenge Trophy Winner and Top Entry Winners in each category.
For the International Debates:
- Certificates will be awarded by the judges for the best group and individual performances and participation during the online debates.
These are decided and announced at the end of each debate session.
Eligibility
The International Schools Essay Competition is open to students aged 7-17 across two categories-
- Primary (7-11)
- Secondary (11-17).
The Sustainability Challenge Video Competition is open for learners of all ages across four categories-
- Primary (7-11),
- Secondary (11-17),
- 18+ and Teachers.
Requirements/Specifications
- Students are strongly discouraged from plagiarizing.
Most importantly, within the essay competition, the same snippets of text tend to reappear again and again from common sources such as Wikipedia.
- Teacher Champions play a valuable role in the competition and are the people who coordinate and submit competition entries on behalf of each school, education institution, home-school, or individual student.
- Any student who has participated in the essay competition is eligible to participate in the debates.
The top 4 students (two Primary and two Secondary) from each country will be invited to be a ‘Debating Student’ and will be allocated by TSL to a debate team with other international students to work together to debate their given viewpoint.
All other students and Teacher Champions will be invited to participate in a ‘Non-Debating’ capacity, meaning they can still watch the debates and participate actively by sharing comments and feedback via the organizers’ Zoom platform and social media.
- There is no fee required to enter the competition or to join the debates and summit.
- Certificates will be uploaded to the TSL Certificate Portal and can be accessed and downloaded by Teacher Champions using their registered login details.
- Entry to the debates is only available to those students who have submitted essays as part of the essay competition.
Free Worksheet and Checklist
Here at Camberene, we go the extra mile to make sure you win. So we have designed a beautiful checklist to help you keep track of your progress and make sure you’re doing things correctly.
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Hit the download button to get it in your inbox ASAP.
Application Instructions
- To apply to become a Teacher Champion, (the Teacher Champions represent their school and submit all the children’s essays), register here.
- Individuals can participate as individual students, but those under 18 will need to be registered and have their essay or video submitted by an adult.
A school/teacher, parents/guardians can conduct the registration.
- If you are 18 or over and wish to participate in the Sustainability Challenge, you can register and submit entries yourself following the same registration process for Teacher Champions.
Once registered, you will have the option to upload up to 30 essays and a video for the sustainability challenge.
- Click here to learn more.
- Study the brief for 2021 – How can we protect biological diversity and stop the sixth mass extinction?
The essay length varies by age as follows:
- Primary students (ages 7-11): 400 words
- Secondary students (ages 11-17): 600 words
- Check the following Entry resources for tips on a starting point to begin developing creative responses to this year’s topic.
- Aichi Biodiversity Targets
- Strategic Plan for Biodiversity 2011-2020
- World’s Largest Lesson – Introducing the UN Global Goals for Sustainable Development
- Click here to apply.
About the Trust for Sustainable Living Essay Competition 2021
Themed Protecting biodiversity, the 2021 edition of the Trust for Sustainable Living Essay competition is aimed at primary and secondary school students, supported by Teacher Champions, parents and schools.
It’s open to school children around the world to share their ideas on the theme.
Discover more opportunities from the Trust for Sustainable Living.
Key Dates and Order of Program
Essay Competition: The deadline for submissions is 23rd December 2020 for the International Schools Essay Competition.
Essay results will be announced online in mid-February 2021.
The top essay Finalists and Honourable Mentions will be announced on the TSL website by 15th February 2021.
The deadline for the Sustainability Challenge is 28th February, 2021.
By 8th March 2021, the Grand Prize Trophy Winner & Top Ten Medallists will be notified confidentially of their status.
From 15th February to 15th June 2021, the Country Debates will be held.
By 5th July 2021, the online Teacher Champions Exchange will hold.
The Virtual International Schools Debate & Awards will be held by 6th July 2021.
The Virtual Partner Power Summit will be held from 7th to 10th July 2021.
An international panel of sustainability experts and educationalists will select the winning entries in each category.
The judges will evaluate entries based on
- Originality
- Creativity woven around a factually based narrative in all formats – and the potential to contribute to constructive national or international debate.
- Unique and well-argued perspectives.
Each child’s age will be taken into account when judging, so that younger children are not at an unfair disadvantage when compared with older children.
For the School debates, the Debates will build on the essay competition, and anyone who enters the essay competition can participate.
The overall Grand Prize Winner, and top ten medallists in each category, will be notified separately and announced at the Debates and Awards.
The International Debates will take place online via zoom during the 2021 Partner Power Summit on Protecting Biodiversity. Only the students who submitted the top essays from each country will be invited to take part as debaters.
The debates will be held after the essay competition as part of the Partner Power Summit on Protecting Biodiversity.
The summit consists of the primary and secondary school debates, and a series of panel discussions, plenaries, and workshops.
The summit is open to anyone to view or attend, but only students selected from essay winners will be able to actively debate during the primary and secondary debate sessions.
The summit will host a series of interesting guest speakers, ranging from students and youth to science and business leaders, to discuss and share their viewpoints and answer participants’ questions.
