School & Teacher Award
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Seventy five years after his death, Orwell’s life and works still educate, challenge and illuminate the modern world. The OS School and Teacher Awards help successful applicants explore his enduring legacy.
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Details of how to apply for the 2026 – 2027 Award are below. We welcome inquiries and will reply as quickly as possible.
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How to Apply
You will need to provide (via the link below) your name and job title, and your school’s:
- Name and (if different) legal entity name;
- Company or partnership number and charity and VAT registration numbers (if applicable);
- Full address and contact details including postcode, telephone number and email;
- Status (e.g. Academy, Church Endowed, Local Authority or Trust); and
- Group and/or parent entity (if it has them) together with their company, VAT and charity numbers (if applicable).
- Queries can be emailed to educationorwellsociety@aol.com before applying.
Application Guidelines
Please submit a 500-word proposal as a Word document covering the following points:
- Your proposed project’s outline including its objectives, target year groups and likely number of lessons.
- Your project’s general themes and connection to Orwell and/or his circle (perhaps including his wives Eileen Blair and Sonia Orwell). For example, you might want to visit and research places where they lived and worked; or tackle possible themes including political power and propaganda, imperialism, social history, inequality, changing gender roles, Orwell’s beloved natural world or researching the truth behind a rumoured local Orwell connection.
- How you would use your project to develop your students’ critical thinking and literacy skills including encouraging sceptical reading and clear and direct writing.
- Which of Orwell’s works you would use for your project. You might also choose to look at his circle’s letters, or his essays, or even at other authors’ works (if you think they would be helpful for your project and pupils).
- An indicative budget showing how you plan to spend the School and Teacher Award to help you with your project. Buying books and resources? Enabling you to visit somewhere associated with Orwell and/or his circle?
Teacher Responsibilities During and After Award
- To build detailed course and lesson plans for the project. We would welcome the opportunity to publish these on The Orwell Society website after the award year has ended.
- To write a c.500-word article for The Orwell Society website and/or Journal, once the Award is over, explaining how the Award supported your Orwell project and what you and your students gained from it.
- Subject to your availability, to share good practice at a CPD event with other teachers, hosted by The Orwell Society, so your project can hopefully inspire them or even be rolled out across the country.
School and Teacher Awards are made to the school and comprise a sum of up to £1250. This is payable in tranches against invoices issued by the school. These invoices should be supported by receipts and/or third-party invoices for items such as teaching materials, books, films and/or transport. Invoices may also relate to, for example, teacher lesson and course planning time and preparing and designing teaching materials etc.
Award sums will be inclusive of any VAT payable by The Orwell Society.
The successful teacher will also receive one year’s free membership of The Orwell Society.
Judges: George Orwell’s son, Richard Blair, and the Orwell Society Trustees. The Orwell Society reserves the right to change the judging panel without notice. The judges’ decision is final and they will only correspond with or provide feedback to the successful applicants.
Please make your submission via this form.