2024/25 Student Writing Competition 

Dear First Give 2024/25 students, 

We hope that you’re excited to embark on your First Give journey! You and your schoolmates are joining almost 200 other schools on the First Give programme this year – which means you and over 35,000 students are embarking on the programme across England and Wales! 

First Give is about equipping young people, like you, with the tools you need to make a positive difference to your community as you… 

• Identify a social issue that you and your class care about  

• Work with a local charity, learning more about them, and planning and delivering a social action project in support of them 

• Working in small groups to curate presentations that summarise your First Give journey, identifying a representative group from your class in a bid to win your charity a £1,000 First Give grant! 

Every year, we hear from Teachers about the impact young people have made to their local communities through the programme, as well as hearing about how the programme has changed students’ way of thinking, developed their skills, and more. As you can imagine, we love to hear your stories, and this year we have an opportunity for all participating students to share their experiences first hand – we want to hear from you! 

Please read on to find out about our student writing competition for First Give 2024/25 students including what prizes there are to be won, how to enter, eligibility, and a more detailed outline of the competition itself. 

This is a competition across all of our partner schools in England and Wales, with some fantastic prizes in store for the top three student entries, and other student entries may also appear on our website too – a great thing to add to your CV. 

1^st prize £50 voucher plus a First Give goodie 

2^nd prize £30 voucher plus a First Give goodie 

3^rd prize £20 voucher plus a First Give goodie 

Am I eligible to enter? 

All entrants must be doing the First Give programme this academic year, between September 2024 – July 2025. 

All entrants must follow the instructions on the submission form (linked at the end of this post), completing it in full before submitting. If your submission is incomplete, we’re afraid your application cannot be considered. 

What do I need to do? 

Students should follow this basic premise for their student writing competition entry. You might choose to write about… 

• Who you chose to support and why the social issue you chose is important to you/your class 

• What you did to support a local charity – tell us about your social action project, why you chose it, what was the impact? 

• How will you take what you learned on the First Give programme forward? 

• What skills have you developed through the programme? How has the programme helped you? 

• What has been the impact of the First Give programme on you? 

• What has been the impact of your efforts for the charity you supported? 

• Did you face a challenge through the programme you’d like to tell us about, such as a fear of public speaking? 

• What would you say to any students undertaking the First Give programme next academic year? 

We’d like you to be creative, so don’t feel that you need to follow these questions exactly, these are to give you a sense of the type of thing we’re looking for. You can think about how best to communicate your ideas too… 

• You might choose to write a diary of your First Give journey, documenting from beginning to end 

• A newspaper style article 

• A letter to First Give/to the charity you support/to your school/to other students 

You can also seek inspiration from a previous First Give student, Zainab, who’s article is linked here. 

Can I include images? 

You can, though not of students’ faces. If you’ve done any artwork, this can also be included. 

Can I write in a group? 

No, entries should be from individual students, though more than one person from your class is welcome to submit an entry! 

What if I need help? 

Ask your teacher if you have any questions about the competition, and they will contact First Give for you. Please note that students cannot contact us directly. 

How do I enter? 

You can enter using the link here to our submissions form.  

I am ready to enter the First Give 2024/25 student writing competition! 

When is the deadline? 

All submissions must be received by First Give by 31^st July 2024. All entries will be reviewed over the Summer, and we will announce the winners in September 2025. 

We look forward to hearing from you! 

First Give Team