Anthea Bell Prize for Young Translators – FAQs

The Anthea Bell Prize for Young Translators is a translation competition for schools. The Prize was launched in 2020 by the Translation Exchange at The Queen’s College, Oxford and had over 16,000 participants in 2024. The competition is inspired by the work of the translator Anthea Bell OBE (1936–2018), one of the finest and most influential literary translators of the 20th and 21st centuries.

The Prize is open to all secondary schools across the UK. Our resources are designed for pupils aged 11-18.

Currently, the Anthea Bell Prize is open to pupils aged 11-18.

Our partner organisation, the Stephen Spender Trust, has developed a range of free creative translation resources for primary and secondary pupils. These are available to access on the Stephen Spender Trust’s website.

All our Prize resources are free to access for registered teachers. The competition is free to enter.

The Prize runs in six languages; French, German, Italian, Mandarin, Russian and Spanish. Teaching packs are available in all of these languages, at four levels designed to cater for all year groups at secondary school (age 11-18). The competition runs in all six languages, at all levels.

The Anthea Bell Prize for Schools in Wales offers bilingual teaching resources (in Welsh and English) for French Level 1 and Level 2. The competition runs at all levels from French into Welsh.

We are grateful for all feedback on the Anthea Bell Prize, and especially feedback on our creative translation resources. Please let us know what you and your students thought of the Prize by completing our feedback form.

We are particularly keen to hear from state schools about the accessibility of our resources.

Our Guide for Teachers provides full details of the Prize and the competition.

If you have any more questions, please get in touch: translation.exchange@queens.ox.ac.uk

Please see our Prize Registration page to register for the Anthea Bell Prize.

Teachers can register for the prize at any point in the year. In 2025, the competition will run from 3^rd February to 28^th March. 

You need to register for the Anthea Bell Prize to access our free resources. Once you have registered for the Prize, you will receive links to creative translation resources in six languages (French, German, Italian, Mandarin, Russian and Spanish).

Our teaching packs are available in six languages (French, German, Italian, Mandarin, Russian and Spanish), at four levels designed to cater for all year groups at secondary school (age 11-18). We also offer bilingual teaching resources (in Welsh and English) for French Level 1 and Level 2.

Our teaching packs include videos, PowerPoint presentations and worksheets. There are three sets of teaching resources – on translating poetry, fiction and non-fiction – for each level and language.

Our resources are designed to introduce creative translation and prepare students for the competition. Each resource pack contains a Teacher Guide, with guidance and ideas on how to use the materials in the classroom.

All of our resources can be downloaded and adapted to suit the needs of your classroom.

Our resources are created according to level of difficulty, and knowledge of the language required.

The levels are:

• Level 1: Early KS3 or first year learning the language
• Level 2: Later KS3 or second/third year learning the language.
• Level 3: KS4
• Level 4: KS5

For our Russian-language resources, the levels are slightly different:

• Level 1/2: KS3 or first year of learning the language
• Level 3: KS4 or second and/or third year of learning the language
• Level 4: KS5 
• Beginners Russian: for students in KS5 with no knowledge of Russian 

Yes! You can try out some of our creative translation resources here.

The competition window runs for eight weeks in Spring term.

In 2025, the competition will run from Monday 3^rd February to Friday 28^th March.

As long as you are registered for the Anthea Bell Prize, you will receive links to the competition tasks.

Registered teachers will receive links to access the competition texts when the competition window opens in February.

The competition texts must be completed independently. Once the competition texts have been set, pupils should receive no assistance from parents or teachers.

Students are welcome to use dictionaries, thesauruses and online resources to complete the competition tasks. We encourage students taking part in the competition to deviate from the glossary provided on the resources, where they feel this will improve their translation.

Students can work in pairs to complete the competition tasks, but not in groups larger than two.

Students may illustrate their entries, but this is not obligatory or expected. This can be a nice extension or homework activity.

Teachers may continue using practice resources in class during the competition window. Our practice resources are designed to prepare pupils for the competition, introducing creative translation and providing the opportunity to practise translating from the target language.

Teachers have chosen to let students complete the competition task in the classroom, or they have set the competition translation as homework or a holiday task. Other teachers have run lunchtime or afterschool clubs where students can complete the competition translation.

Submissions are made via an online form. Registered teachers will be provided with a link to the form during the competition window.

Schools may enter in as many languages and levels as they wish, up to a maximum of 20 entries per school.

Teachers should select the top five entries for each level in each language. Only five entries per level are permitted for each language.

Schools can enter students in as many languages and levels as they wish.

We can offer a short extension of one week for late submissions. In the 2025 competition, the final possible submission date will be Friday 4^th April.

Entries are judged over several stages, by Oxford Modern Languages undergraduates and professional literary translators. Translations will be judged on the balance between creativity and accuracy.

The competition runs across 10 geographical areas of the UK to ensure as much participation as possible from right across the country: East, Greater London, Midlands, Northern Ireland, North East, North West, Scotland, South East, South West, Wales.

Winners and commendees are selected for each level, from each geographical area.

National winners and runners-up are selected from the area winners.

We will announce competition winners in May and June.

All area winners and commendees will receive a certificate. UK-wide winners will receive a book as well as a certificate. The names of all winners and commendees are published on the Queen’s College website (with permission).