Be Bold…
This year’s writing challenge will appeal to budding news reporters and girls who are keen to hold truth to power, to speak up, and speak out.
Now in its fifth year, the GSA Writing Award for senior school students turns its eye to look at the world through young women’s eyes to champion accurate and important reporting.
For 2025, the GSA writing award will be a little different. It will still be broken down into age categories – years’ 7 to 9 will be judged separately to those in years’ 10 to 13 – and it will be focused on journalism, and not poetry, as in previous years.
The theme of this year’s competition is ‘Be Bold.’ You can use your education to help others who aren’t so lucky. When you see something that doesn’t seem right, speak out. The chances are others share your concerns but maybe don’t have the skills, the confidence, or the words to act. History teaches us that terrible things can happen when good people stay silent. We are living in a time of mass misinformation and disinformation, where a free press, and the ability to receive facts and evidence-based reporting have never been more important. Sometimes, that means exposing uncomfortable truths, questioning the orthodoxy, or speaking out for those without a voice, and against those in authority.”
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The Writing Brief
We want you to write about the time you have been at your bravest. A time when you have spoken out for what you believed in, even if doing so was risky or scary. Tell us about what happened (it doesn’t have to ended in resounding success) as a result, why you did it, how it felt, and what you learned from the experience.
For those in years 7 to 9, please submit no more than 500 words.
For those in years 10 to 13, please submit no more than 850 words.
We’ll be looking for the best pieces of writing, in terms of style, content and structure. Here are a few examples of things to think about when putting your entry together, and that we’ll be looking for when reading them:
a) Narrative
Remember that you are telling a story. It needs to be true (the best ones often are), but the reader needs to be engaged. Think about how to maintain interest throughout the piece, and that it has a proper structure – a beginning, a middle, and an end. It might help to think about five or so key points that you want to get across in your piece, before you start writing. What order should they come in? How are they different to each other?
b) Style
The most important thing is that you are clear. Short, punchy sentences can be just as eloquent and powerful as descriptive, long ones. Don’t feel restricted – there is no right way. Think about where you want the reader to pause or reflect, and when you want to signal a change in gear and try to reflect that in your sentence and paragraph structure – especially those in the older age category. We want to be persuaded by you, to really understand what was going through your mind at given moments. We want you to maintain our attention throughout.
c) Facts
Facts matter. Evidence matters. When you’re explaining when you spoke out/were brave, tell me why you did it? What lay behind the decision? What key pieces of information did you have that made you convinced you were right?
We really hope you’ll enjoy writing your entries, and that it allows you to feel proud of yourselves. Our Judge can’t wait to read them!
Submissions are now open – but only until Friday 2 May 2025!
Read on for the competition rules and how to enter.
Meet Our Judge
Hannah Barnes
In the nearly twenty years Hannah has been a journalist, focusing on investigative or analytical journalism. She spent 15 years at the BBC, working on some of the most respected radio and television news and current affairs programmes in the UK. She edited both the Today programme on Radio 4 and Newsnight on BBC 2, and spent many years producing radio documentaries on some of the trickiest topics possible. She is currently an Associate Editor at The New Statesman, where she is lucky to be able to continue asking questions, and making people think.
That’s what she enjoys the most: taking the most difficult, important issues of our time, and shedding light on them. It’s her privilege to be able to meet people, to tell their stories, and give them a voice. While it’s not something you can do every day, opportunities do come along from time to time to be able to make a real difference – to change things for the good; to stop something or someone bad; to change society’s understanding of the world we live in. She hopes that GSA Students will strive for that too.
Along the way she has collected a few awards, and written a book on one of the biggest stories she covered. We must be able to discuss areas of controversy, where views are fiercely divided, both calmly and with compassion. Sometimes the truth is uncomfortable. It is painful. But without it, we are lost.
Hannah said “It’s a great honour to have been asked to design and judge this year’s prize. I was a pupil at one of the GSA members schools – Lady Eleanor Holles – more than twenty-five years ago. I joined the school in the sixth form, having been in mixed, state schools up to that point in time. One of the things that struck me as soon as I joined was the confidence it had given so many of the girls and young women. You – and I – are so fortunate to have been given the gift of a great education, and all of the opportunities that it will open for you. You can do and be anything. And let’s be frank, the world needs more brilliant women.”
The Process
- Hannah will read every submission (there will be no sifting).
- The decision of the judge remains final, and no correspondence will be entered into.
- A longlist will be chosen of six entries from each of the two age groups. Announced by 23 May.
- A shortlist will be chosen of three entries per category. Announced on 16 June.
- One winner from each age category will be unveiled at the GSA’s Summer Briefing in June.
- Longlisted, shortlisted, and winning writers will be publicised over GSA’s owned media channels, and winners will be invited to participate in the Summer Briefing event (details to be agreed).
- Submission to this competition assumes that pupils and their guardians have agreed to the publicity of them and their work in the public domain and GSA member schools are requested to have all permissions in place for this.
Once all entries have been submitted, a shortlist of 3 entries will be announced, via their teacher, no later than 2 June. The shortlisted entries will also be invited to make a video recording of themselves reading their shortlisted entry.
GSA will announce and celebrate both the shortlist, and winners over its communications channels
Winning entries will also be on display at GSA’s prestigious Summer Briefing in London at BMA House on 16 June.
Competition Rules
- Please submit your entry via this form, other submissions will not be accepted.
- All entries that wish to be considered must be submitted no later than Friday 2 May.
- Entries are free.
- Submissions are for journalism only.
- All entries should be submitted in word.doc or pdf formats only and not directly into the form. They will be discounted if they are not submitted in this format.
- Save the document as: name, article title, school.
- Please include your name, year, and school on your submission form but not on the submission itself.
- Only one entry per pupil allowed.
- There are two age categories: KS3 – Years 7 to 9. Most students will be aged 11-14 and KS4 & KS5 – Years 10 to 13 (including Sixth Form). Most students will be aged 14 to 18.
- Entries must be your own original work.
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