How to apply for the World’s Best School Prizes

Our Application Process

We’ve designed an application process that encourages self-reflection and facilitates meaningful conversations amongst your school’s community, which may include students, parents, guardians, teachers, school leaders, external organisations and anyone else involved with your institution.

Bring your school’s community together.

Familiarise yourself with the Prizes categories and the framework for the World’s Best School Prizes.

Reflect together and identify your best practices in any of these areas, and also those that still need to be improved.

Score your best practices using the rating indicators for each criterion of the category you are applying for.

Gather evidence to prove the impact of your expertise in your students and community’s lives.

Prepare your application responses.

Fill out the form online and submit your application online.

We believe that school self-evaluation empowers a school community to identify great practice and possible areas of improvement. With this application process we want to empower by helping them with this first step so that schools will take ownership of their own development and improvement.

Our application process requires you to reflect, gather evidence and identify best practises in an area of possible improvement. Furthermore, it gives your school scaffolding when deciding what to implement. This will assist you in creating an improvement plan, measuring its progress and celebrating your school’s achievements.

Each school will complete formative self-assessment of their practises with a rating system that showcases a possible scaffolding to set future priorities and continue to improve as a school. Though only one school will be named a winner of the Prize for each category, each school that undertakes the self-assessment application process will do so knowing that they are undertaking a process to improve in the future for their students and have the possibility to participate in the Prizes.

Find out more in the Application Guidance Document and get ready to undertake this journey!

Access the Application Guidance Document.

Access Application Guide

World's Best School Prizes

2022-2023

November 10, 2022

World’s Best School Prizes 2023 applications open

March 15, 2023

Applications close

April 2023

Interviews with potential shortlisted schools

June 2023

Public announcement of Top 10 Shortlists for each Prize

September 2023

Public announcement of Top 3 finalists for each Prize - Public Vote

October 2023

Winning Ceremony

FAQs

Can a school apply for more than one Prize category?

Yes, a school can apply for more than one Prize category, but please note that you will need to apply for each Prize separately. Please do not submit more than one form for the same category.

Does the form look different depending on the Prize I am applying for?

No, we use the same form for all five categories. All you need to do is select the Prize category you are applying for when you start completing the form.

Who can apply for the Prizes?

Early childhood centres, kindergarten, primary, secondary schools, and online schools – all schools that teach students in compulsory schooling and are legally registered with their respective Ministry of Education or government regulatory authority.

Who can complete the application form?

Only teachers, school principals, or other members of the applicant school’s leadership team or of its governing body can complete the application form. They need to register to create an account in order to start an application. We will not consider applications submitted by any figure other than the ones described above.

If my school belongs to a network of schools, can we apply as an organisation?

No, you will need to apply as an individual school.

Do I need any authorisation from any superiors to submit an application for my school?

Yes, you need permission from your school authorities to nominate your school for the World’s Best School Prizes. By applying for the World’s Best School Prizes, you take full legal responsibility for ensuring the necessary permissions have been sought and granted in advance.

Does the application involve any costs for schools?

No, there are no costs to apply to enter the contest.

Can I apply in any language?

Yes, we accept applications written in your native language. However, you need to know that all our communications will be in English. If you don’t speak English, we recommend you involve an English speaker to support you through the process, particularly if your school gets shortlisted.

Can I leave an application open and submit it later?

Yes. You can start drafting and then log in whenever you want to finish completing your application.

When is the application deadline?

Applications close on March 15th, 2023, at 11.45 pm GMT.

Will we get notified if we are not shortlisted?

Unfortunately not. We will publicly announce the schools that are on the shortlists.

What are the funding sources of the World’s Best Schools Prizes?

The Prizes are funded by sponsorship and grant funding from organisations in the private and philanthropic sectors.

What is the Prize award for the winners?

A Prize of US$250 000 will be shared equally between the five winners. Each winner will receive a Prize award of US$50.000. Learn more about the prize on our Terms and Conditions.

Download Terms & Conditions

What is T4 Education?

The World’s Best School Prizes is an initiative of T4 Education, a UK-based organisation committed to providing engaging tools, initiatives, and events for schools and teachers to improve education all around the world. Learn more at: https://t4.education/about-t4/

How to Apply

World’s Best School Prizes 2023 applications are now open.

We celebrate schools with an opportunity to recognise and share their achievements around the world.