IMAGINE AWARDS 2026 - SUSTAINABILITY PRIMARY

Imagine Awards 2026

Thank you for your interest in Thornton Education Trust's (TET) Imagine Awards.

If you've ever brought architecture or the built environment into your classroom — asked your pupils to look closely at a local street, redesigned the school playground on paper, mapped what they'd change about their neighbourhood, or worked with a visiting architect — this award is for you.

The Imagine Awards celebrate the work primary teachers do to help children think about the world they live in. What matters is that your pupils had the chance to engage with the places around them, and that you can say what it meant to them.

Category:

This form is for submissions to the Sustainability Category only. This category celebrates projects that encourage children to think creatively about climate, sustainability and the future of the built and natural environment.

Enter as an individual teacher or as a school — whether your work was a one-off project or something you return to year on year.

If you wish to enter another category, please use the separate submission form, available on the website.

The Christina Smith Award

The Christina Smith Award is a special award recognising projects that thoughtfully connect heritage, place and contemporary design, helping children and young people explore how the past can inform the future of our built environment.

If your project includes learning about local heritage, historic buildings, conservation, cultural identity, regeneration or the evolution of places over time, you may wish to be considered for this award. Later in the application form, you will have the opportunity to indicate your interest, and the judges will determine eligibility as part of the assessment process. No additional application is required.

A few things to know before you begin:

Entry is free for all state schools.
Independent Schools is £69.00 per entry
Please save your form as you go — the save option is available at the end of the form
If you have questions before submitting, our FAQs are available on the website.
Submission deadline: Friday 23rd October 2026
Judging will take place shortly after the deadline, and shortlisted entries will be notified
If you have any questions, please see our FAQs on the website or Contact imagineawards@thorntoneducationtrust.org

Your submission:

Don't worry if you can't answer every question fully — entries are judged on the quality and character of your work, not on how completely you fill in each field. When you're ready, scroll down to begin.

Note - if your organisation requires us to receive a purchase order from you to submit, please email us first at imagine@thorntoneducationtrust.org

Sustainability

Full Name (application contact)

First NameLast Name

School

Job Title

E-mail

Address

Street Address Line 2

City

Country

Phone Number

Area CodePhone Number

Please state whether you would like further details

Who has delivered the activity

Position

email

Activity Title

Please enter a short description of your lesson, activity or initiative

How many participants?

Primary age group involved?

Which curriculum subjects did the activity connect to? Select all that apply — or leave blank if your work didn't map neatly onto a specific subject.

Tell us about your activity. Briefly describe the lesson, project or initiative. Include when it took place, who was involved and whether it was a one-off activity or part of an ongoing programme.

What were you hoping to achieve? Tell us why you developed the activity and what you wanted pupils to learn, explore or understand, how the activity came about, what it involved and what you were aiming for?

How did pupils experience it? Describe what happened in practice. What activities, resources, places, partnerships or approaches helped bring the learning to life?

What difference did it make? Tell us about the impact on pupils. This could include observations, feedback, work produced, quotes, memorable moments or anything else that shows what pupils gained from the experience.

What did you learn from it? Has the activity influenced your teaching practice or future plans? Is there anything you would develop, repeat or do differently next time?

Share a quote, a comment or a moment that captures what the activity meant to them. This doesn't need to be something formally collected; something said in passing or written in a book is just as welcome.

Would you like this application to be considered for the Christina Smith Award?(www.thorntoneducationtrust.org/imagine-christina-smith-award)

YES /NO

Anything else you wish to add to your application?

Supporting research and resources to share with other teachers:

Upload a File

Please upload any supporting research or resources that you would be happy to share with teachers to help deliver more built environment education. This will be credited to you and added to our padlet to share with primary schools. Accepted formats: PDF, ZIP, MP3, MPG, AVI, JPG, JPEG, PNG, GIF. Max file size: 20MB. Note: Selected images may be used for press and social media.

Application supporting materials:

Upload a File

You may upload any other materials that you don’t want to be made public but aids your application. You may upload up to 6 pages (A4) of supporting documents, which can include evidence such as statistics, evaluation summaries, images, press coverage, and testimonials. Accepted formats: PDF, ZIP, MP3, MPG, AVI, JPG, JPEG, PNG, GIF. Max file size: 20MB. Note: Selected images may be used for press and social media.

Key Image

Upload a File

Accepted formats: JPEG, PNG, PDF. Max file size: 2MB. Images may be used for press and social media.

Name to print on the Award Certificate

Please be clear and include the teacher, job title, school name

I hereby agree that the information provided on this entry is true and accurate to the best of my knowledge.

1. Category - Sustainability

2. About you

3. Proposed Research Participation

4. About the activity

5. Tell us about your activity

6. Quote

7. The Christina Smith Award

9. Upload photos, resources etc

10. Award Details