Clubs and competitions
One way you can enrich your English skills and knowledge is to take part in extra-curricular clubs and competitions. We run several different clubs, as well as our annual creative writing competitions, and we encourage students to take part in prestigious national and international competitions.
Competitions to enter right now
If you like the sound of any of these, want to enter, but feel as if you need a little bit of help getting started, just speak to your English teacher. They’ll be happy to help.
National and international competitions
Tower Poetry Competition: The Tower Poetry Competition offers the UK’s most valuable prize (£5000) for young poets. The competition is open to students between 16 and 18 years of age. The theme for the 2026 competition is ‘A Riddle’ and they ask for poems of no more than 48 lines in length. Entries close at noon on 19th February 2026. More details here.
Canterbury Tales Writing Competition
This prestigious annual competition asks students from 5-18 years old to write a poem, story or description on the theme of ‘Happily Ever After?’. You have the choice of either: writing a poem or story that ends happily; writing a poem or story that ends happily, but not for everyone; or writing a description (in verse or prose) of a character who comes to a bad end. Entries are of a maximum of 500 words and must be submitted by 28 February 2026. Prizes of up to £300 can be won in each age category. More details here.
Never Such Innocence Writing Competition
This year’s theme is ‘In Someone Else’s Shoes’ which you can respond to using poetry, art or song. The competition which was set up to help remember the lessons from previous wars, asks you to explore different perspectives of war and conflict. It accepts entries from age 9-18 in several categories. An SHSG student was a winner last year. Fingers crossed for more of the same. Entries need to be submitted by 27th February 2026. More details here.
BBC Young Writer’s Award 2026: This is the most prestigious award for young writers in the UK. Entrants aged between 14 and 18 have to submit a short story of a 1,000 words or less. The deadline for receipt of entries is 23rd March 2026. More details here.
Author of Tomorrow Award: The Author of Tomorrow Award is designed to find the adventure writers of the future. It is an annual competition open to young people across the world who have completed a short piece of adventure writing in English. Prizes are from £100 to £1000. It closes on 19th April 2026. More details here.
Clubs and competitions in school
Enter one of our annual creative writing competitions
We run a number of competitions throughout the year, every year. If you happen to win, you will receive Bonus Levels to your overall English Level, plus one of our legendary trophies. The regular competitions are:
The Cursed Pen – our annual horror writing competition
The Green Dagger – our annual crime writing competition
The SHSG Poetry Prize – our annual poetry competition
Join our Debating Society
Students in Years 7-10 will be able to learn the skills of debating, practise debates for fun and take part in internal and external debate competitions.
Join our Creative Writing Group
Our creative writing group (for students in KS3 and 4) meets every week to practise and share their work.
Join the GCSE Bookclub
Students in Year 10 will be able to join our Bookclub (from January), in which they’ll read some brilliant super-curricular books and talk about them. The Bookclub will continue to run for Year 11 students until Christmas.