The Royal Commonwealth Society (RCS) endeavours to promote literacy, expression and creativity among young people by celebrating excellence and imagination. Run by the RCS since 1883, The Queen’s Commonwealth Essay Competition is the world’s oldest international schools’ writing competition. It is a highly regarded and popular international education project that sees thousands of children from across the Commonwealth enter every year.
Open to all Commonwealth citizens aged 18 and under, The Queen’s Commonwealth Essay Competition offers young people from diverse backgrounds the opportunity to make their voices heard on a global platform, to engage with issues important to them and to express their aspirations for the future.
Each year, participants demonstrate their ability to stimulate and provoke discussions about important Commonwealth and global issues from a young person’s perspective and to showcase their critical and creative skills.
The 2018 Competition aims to increase entries from countries that haven’t taken part historically, and diversify entries to encourage more from state schools and disadvantaged areas. Essay Competition Representatives will be a key part of achieving this goal.
Entrants can select one Senior or Junior topic depending on their age on 1st May 2017. Senior entrants must be born between 2nd June 1999 and 1st June 2004 (14-18) and Junior entrants must be born after 31st May 2004 (under 14 years of age).
The maximum word counts are 1,500 words for Senior entries and 750 words for Junior entries. These word limits apply to all topics and all formats (essay, poem, letter, etc). Essays can only be uploaded as a Microsoft Word document (.doc or .docx) or in PDF format (.pdf).
All online entries must be submitted before midnight (GMT) on 1st June 2018; any offline entries must arrive at RCS London by 1st May 2018. The results will be announced in August 2018. Full terms and conditions are available at www.thercs.org/competition.
Judges award Bronze, Silver and Gold to the best entries but every individual receives a certificate of participation and every school receives a certificate too. Each year a Senior Winner, Senior Runner-up, Junior Winner and Junior Runner-up are chosen and flown to London for a week of activities, typically including an Awards Ceremony and Buckingham Palace.
More information about the competition, including the competition’s topics by category, is provided in the attached flyer.