Terms and Conditions

General Preamble

The World’s Best School Prizes are an initiative of BVU Ventures Ltd trading as T4 Education, and were set up with the aim of showcasing excellence in schools through a prize competition format. There are five Prizes:

World’s Best School Prize for Community Collaboration; 

World’s Best School Prize for Environmental Action;

World’s Best School Prize for Innovation;

World’s Best School Prize for Overcoming Adversity;

World’s Best School Prize for Supporting Healthy Lives.

There will be one winner per Prize and a cash Prize of USD $50,000 will be equally shared among the five winners. Each Prize winner will receive a cash Prize of USD $10,000. The five winners will be selected by our Judging Academy based on the judging criteria for each Prize. In addition to this, we will give a “Community Choice Award” to any of the fifty Top 10 shortlisted schools that scored the highest number of votes in the Public Vote.

Timeline 2024

Eligibility

To be eligible, the Candidates:

• Must be a school or learning centre that is legally registered with its respective Ministry of Education or government regulatory authority.
• Must not be prohibited from participating in the Contest under the applicable law of their country.

General Requirements to Apply

• All applications must be submitted online. T4 Education will not accept applications coming from different sources other than the official site.
• Only Teachers or Principals (“Applicant”) that currently work and operate in the school they are entering into the Prizes can register to submit an application. The Applicant needs first to complete a registration process in order to be able to start an application.
• Applicants must be aged 18+.
• Applicants must submit a complete application with the authorisation and permission of the school’s authorities and/or governing body to enter the Contest and accept these Terms and Conditions in order to enter the Contest.
• Applications can be submitted in any language.
• Application to enter the Contest is free of charge.

Communication and Dissemination

• All dissemination efforts in relation to this Contest and its development will be made through T4 Education’s communication channels and amplified by the T4 Community, sponsors, partners, and other third parties involved in the Contest.
• T4 Education may, at its discretion, ask Candidates to participate in dissemination. 
• T4 Education’s main communication language will be English – for dissemination and promotion activities, as well as communications between T4 Education and the Candidates.
• T4 Education’s main source of communication with Candidates will be through email.

Judging Process

1. Application Review & Definition of the Top 10 shortlists. After applications are reviewed against the eligibility criteria and requirements, they are assessed by a Screening Committee made up of teachers, set up by T4, based on the judging criteria for each Prize. Once a longlist has been proposed for each Prize, we conduct further due diligence and we invite those schools to an online interview to dive deeper into their expertise and gather more information to support their application. After the interviews, we narrow down the Top 10 shortlists for each Prize.

2. Review Panel Evaluation & Definition of Top 3 finalists. Our Review Panel, made up of education experts and teachers, assess the Top 10 shortlisted schools against the judging criteria, including their applications, interviews and all the information gathered, and will define the Top 3 finalists for each Prize.

3. Judging Academy Vote - Definition of the five winners. The Judging Academy reviews the Top 3 finalists schools’ evaluation packages and votes to determine the winners of each category.

Judging Bodies

Our Judging Process involves the following actors to evaluate applications:

(i) a Screening Committee that is formed by T4 Education to evaluate applications after the deadline. This Committee will narrow down a longlist, based on the judging criteria for each category. They will also consider the quality, clarity, and completeness of the applications, and eligibility criteria.

(ii) the Review Panel, made up of education experts, that will determine the finalists in each category.

(iii) the Judging Academy that will select the winners.

T4 Education reserves the right to apply various considerations in arriving at a final decision on the inclusion of schools at any stage of the contest.

The Community Choice Award

The Community Choice Award is a special recognition open to the shortlisted schools for all five World’s Best School Prizes and awarded to the school that receives the most votes in the Public Vote. The process and its result is independent of whether the school also wins one of the five World’s Best School Prizes or not. It has no bearing on the decision of the Judging Academy. The Judges will decide the five winners of the World’s Best School Prizes based on the judging criteria as explained in the previous section, whilst the public will decide the winner of the Community Choice Award with their votes, based on their stories.

The school that receives the highest number of votes in the Public Vote will be the winner of the World’s Best School Prizes Community Choice Award 2024. Only one school amongst the fifty shortlisted schools will be awarded the Community Choice Award.

About the Public Vote - Terms and Conditions

The Public Vote starts on the day the Top 10 shortlists are announced and is hosted on a dedicated website built for this purpose.

The online system counts the unique votes (to counter vote fraud) based on single voter registration with a unique email address.

The result of the Public Vote will remain confidential until the Winning Ceremony. T4 Education will not disclose publicly the ranking of schools, or the number of votes collected at any moment. The only information shared will be the name of the winner of the Community Choice Award, on the day of the World’s Best School Prizes Winning Ceremony.

T4 Education reserves the right to disallow votes if it has reasonable grounds to suspect that fraudulent votes have been cast (i.e. same user using different email addresses). T4 Education reserves the right to disqualify any Finalist who engages in activity which could be designed to unfairly manipulate the outcome of the Public Vote.

Voting is free. You may be subject to your standard internet access charges or data charges if you are using a web browser on your mobile phone.

In the event of an equal number of votes, T4 Education’s team will review the process and determine the winner leveraging additional criteria, such as number of shares on social media.

The winner will be awarded with a free membership of T4 Education’s Best School To Work programme.

Terms and Conditions

By participating in this contest (“Contest”), each school/learning institution that submits an application form (“Candidate”) and the individuals that are submitting the form on behalf of the school (“Applicants”) accept and agree to be bound by the following terms and conditions:

Terms & Conditions on Application For All Schools

Conditions and Limitations for all Applicants and Candidates:

• To enter the Contest, Applicants must follow the guidelines and instructions and then complete the application form online and submit it accordingly.
• T4 Education is not responsible for late, lost, uncompleted, damaged or misdirected entries, nor is it for any printing or typographical errors in the applications.
• Applicants and Candidates will not be reimbursed for any costs incurred in connection with submitting the Application.
• Candidates can not edit nor request T4 Education to edit their application after they have submitted it.
• Applicants take full legal responsibility for ensuring the necessary permissions have been sought and granted in advance to enter the Candidate into the Contest. T4 Education reserves the right to request written confirmation from the school’s authorities if the Candidate is shortlisted.
• Applicants represent that they have: (i) all intellectual property rights to all of the content of their application materials and (ii) the authority to submit these materials and to grant the licence described herein. 
• Applicants shall fully indemnify T4 Education for all third party claims arising directly or indirectly from breach of this representation.
• Upon submission, the Candidates grant T4 Education a non-exclusive, irrevocable, royalty-free and worldwide licence to use and modify the Application, in whole or in part, for commercial and other purposes, without any payment or other consideration, for use in any media now known or hereafter discovered, in perpetuity, to the extent legally permissible.
• By entering this Contest, each Candidate forever discharges and releases T4 Education from any and all liability, claims, causes of action, suits, and demands of any kind (“Claims”) arising from an in connection with the Contest. The Candidate also indemnifies T4 Education from all Claims arising from third parties in relation to the Applicant’s participation in this Contest or the breach of these Terms and Conditions by the Applicant.
• Applicants agree to the use of their name and likeness in publicity without notice or any additional compensation, except where prohibited by law.
• At T4 Education’s discretion, Candidates may be required to provide proof of compliance with any of these Terms and Conditions.
• T4 Education reserves the right to request and require additional information from Candidates in order to have their submission considered. Upon T4 Education’s request at any time, Candidates may have to

  • provide referees for T4 Education’s due diligence
  • take part in a recorded interview.
  • provide further information (evidence) to verify the content provided in the application

• The shortlists once announced are final. In the exceptional cases where Candidates withdraw from the Contest after the shortlists are announced, due to force majeure circumstances, they will not be removed from the shortlist, but they will not be considered for further stages of the Prize. 
• T4 Education will not notify Candidates whose applications have not been considered for the shortlist nor disclose details or information about the judging process. The Candidate acknowledges that only the shortlisted candidates will be notified of such.

Terms for all top 10 shortlisted schools & top 3 finalist schools

In addition to the Terms and Conditions for all applicants which have been accepted, all Applicants and Candidates understand and agree to be bound by the following Terms and Conditions if the Candidate is shortlisted:

• The Candidate commits to collaborate where necessary to ensure the proper development of the public announcement of the shortlists as requested by T4 Education.
• Interruption of communications with T4 and/or lack of response by a Candidate within the specified time frame could immediately result in the exclusion of such Candidate for the shortlist which was being considered for without prior notice. In this case or elsewhere these Terms and Conditions are breached, T4 Education reserves the right to select an alternative Candidate for the shortlist in their place.
• The Candidate acknowledges that T4 Education has the right to publicise and broadcast their name, voice, and likeness, the fact that they were shortlisted, and all materials incidental thereto.
• The shortlisted Candidate agrees to abide by any press embargo stipulated by T4 Education.
• T4 Education associates where necessary with press associates for media diffusion. The Candidate agrees to collaborate where requested with the press associates for that purpose.

• The Candidate acknowledges that T4 Education has the right to request visual, written, media or other types of assets to promote their inclusion in the shortlist and understands that, by providing T4 Education with these materials, they already grant permission to use them publicly. All assets provided will have the necessary permissions of the people listed or pictured in them, even if these were children, for public use in digital, press, and other channels to promote the initiative and any other activities related to T4 Education. The Candidate is responsible for obtaining the permissions in advance. Upon submission of required materials, the Candidates authorises T4 Education to use them publicly and grant T4 Education a non-exclusive, irrevocable, royalty-free and worldwide licence to use and modify the materials, in whole or in part, for commercial and other purposes, without any payment or other consideration, for use in any media now known or hereafter discovered, in perpetuity, to the extent legally permissible.
• The Candidate commits to take an active part in the public announcement and dissemination of their name in the shortlist or finalist list as per the dates and plan proposed by T4 Education for these, which includes: (i) availability to attend an activity or event in relation to an announcement, (ii) collaboration to bring the community together for an event or activity or any actions as requested by T4 Education, (iii) collaboration with the promotion activities on the Candidate’s channels and its community, (iv) availability to take up media interviews. T4 Education is not responsible for and hence will not reimburse any costs incurred in connection with the above stated.
• For a period of one year after their inclusion in the shortlist, the Candidate is expected to act  as an ambassador for T4 Education. Acting as an ambassador shall include but not be limited to attending events, promoting activities, disseminating information, speaking to the media and other audiences, undertaking training and other commitments outside of working hours, on weekends and/or on holidays.
• Inclusion in the shortlist requires the Candidate to collaborate with T4 Education and its community through the following actions: (i) collaborate where requested by T4 Education and its partners, (ii) participate in events, (iii) participate in media engagements, (iv) participate in research programmes, (v) host events to showcase their expertise when requested, (vi) promote T4 Education’s events to their school community to ensure participation, (vii) use all media channels, including social media accounts to promote the above engagements where requested, (viii) disseminate information to their networks, (ix) take part in focus groups or studies
• Upon T4 Education’s request, the Candidate will have to provide examples of evidence and provide referees whom T4 Education may contact to verify the application, and may also take part in recorded interviews and other film formats to showcase their expertise. T4 Education will be responsible for the charges in relation to the film-making process except in the following cases: (i) the Candidate interrupts communications with T4 which delays the timings of the filming plans, (ii) the Candidate doesn’t fully contribute to the purpose of the film as requested by T4 Education, (iii) the Candidate requests edits over the delivery deadline that incur in extra costs. In any of these cases, the extra costs will be charged to the Candidate.
• During the period of two years, the Candidate shall not conduct themselves (by act of omission) in such a way to bring education or T4 Education into disrepute (as may be determined at the sole discretion of T4 Education).
• T4 Education reserves the right to disqualify a Candidate if these Terms and Conditions are breached.
• Candidates are allowed to withdraw from the Contest even after being shortlisted, and they will be allowed to maintain their recognition, but they will no longer have access to the shared spaces with other Candidates in relation to the Contest. They cannot remove themselves from a shortlist after it has been publicly announced, but withdrawing will remove them from consideration for future stages of the Prize and other activities.

Terms for Winners

We define ‘Winners’ as the winning schools or learning centres/institutions for each Prize category, and for the Community Choice Award. Each cycle of the World's Best School Prizes has six winners: five winning schools in each Prize category and one winner of the Community Choice Award.

In addition to the Terms and Conditions for all shortlisted and finalist schools, which have been accepted, the Candidates selected as winners (“winner”) agree to the following:

• The winner commits to collaborate where necessary to ensure the proper development of the Winning Ceremony and its diffusion as stated and requested by T4 Education.
• During the period of a year, the winner shall not conduct themselves (by act of omission) in such a way to bring education or T4 Education into disrepute (as may be determined at the sole discretion of T4 Education).
• The winner acknowledges that the Prize must be deployed for organisational enhancement purposes, and must not be used for any personal benefit.
• The winner must not use the Prize, neither directly nor indirectly, for (i) any purpose that may bring the education sector into disrepute (as may be determined at the sole discretion of T4 Education) (ii) any illegal activity; (iii) any political activity.
• The winner acknowledges that T4 Education has the right to publicise and broadcast the winner’s name, voice, and likeness, the fact that they won, and all materials incidental thereto.
• Each school will be awarded with a prize of US$ 10,000, which will be paid gross in four equal instalments over a period of two years, subject to any tax, foreign exchange and transaction costs or other withholding required under applicable law.
• The winner must promptly provide a written report against each of the payments, which details how the Prize has been spent.
• The winner must provide satisfactory evidence to T4 Education that they already have or have opened a bank account in the school’s name.
• Winners will be solely responsible for any and all taxes incurred by their participation in the contest. T4 Education will report or withhold any individual winnings in accordance with applicable law.
• In case winners are unable to accept the prize money, T4 Education reserves the right to deploy it at its sole discretion.
• Notwithstanding any other provision of these Terms and Conditions, T4 Education reserves the right to: (i) stop paying any and all Prize money and/or (ii) require the winner to return any Prize money already disbursed if, at any point after the award of the Prize to the winner, it is discovered that: (a) any of the Application material was false or misleading in any way, (b) the winner was not in fact eligible or (c) that any of these Terms and Conditions have otherwise been breached.
• For a period of three years after the awarding of the Prize to the winner, the winner is expected to (i) continue to operate as a school (ii) act as an ambassador for T4 Education. Serving as an ambassador shall include but not be limited to attending events, speaking to the media, undertaking training and other commitments outside of working hours, on weekends and/or on holidays. T4 Education will pay for all international travel and accommodation expenses.
• T4 Education reserves the right to terminate the Contest without awarding the Prize if no eligible winner is found or claims the Prize within the required time.

These Terms and Conditions are subject to modification by T4 Education in its sole discretion and will be binding upon all Applicants and Candidates. Any amendment shall be notified to the Candidates by means of the publication of the new Terms on the website: worldsbestschool.org

This Contest is void where prohibited or restricted by law. Each of these Terms & Conditions is subject to applicable law.

If any Term or Condition or part-Term or Condition is or becomes invalid, illegal or unenforceable, it shall be deemed deleted, however shall not affect the rest of these Terms and Conditions, in its validity and enforceability.

This Contest and these Terms and Conditions shall be governed by the laws of England and Wales, without regard to any conflicts of law principles. Any and all claims or disputes arising out of or in connection with this Contest or these Terms & Conditions shall be subject to non-exclusive jurisdiction of English courts.

Data Privacy Policy

As a UK-based organisation, T4 Education processes personal data in compliance with the Privacy and Electronic Communications (EC Directive) Regulations 2003 (PECR) and the (UK) General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).

Any personal or organisational information included in the application or other materials collected in connection with this Contest is collected, used, and maintained according to our Privacy Policy.

For more information please visit https://t4.education/privacy-policy

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Date of last amendment: November 2023