School prize giving looks simple from the back of the hall, but someone has to turn a spreadsheet of names into a table of engraved awards, on budget and past the finance office. This guide is for the teacher or head of year with that job. It covers GCSE and year-group presentation evenings, award categories, budgets per pupil, name lists and the paperwork.
Choose your format first
- GCSE presentation evening: results arrive in August, so many schools hold this in the autumn term, when last year's Year 11 come back to collect their certificates.
- Year-group presentation evening: a shorter event for one year group and their families, often in the summer term.
- Whole-school prize giving: one big occasion, usually with a guest speaker and a fixed number of prizes for each year.
The format decides your numbers. A GCSE evening often means a prize for every subject. A year-group evening can recognise far more pupils with smaller awards.
Award categories that work
Start with subject prizes, then add awards for things other than grades. Parents notice when the same four names keep going up to the stage, so a balanced list helps:
- Subject prizes: one for each subject, chosen by the head of department.
- Progress prizes: for the pupil who moved furthest from their starting point.
- Effort prizes: nominated by form tutors, which brings in pupils a department might miss.
- Attendance: take care with 100% awards, as they can punish illness. Most Improved Attendance is often fairer.
- Service to the school: prefects, peer mentors, library helpers and charity organisers.
- Performing arts and sport: see our music and drama trophies for the stage.
- Headteacher's Award and Governors' Prize: one of each, as the last two names of the evening.
A centre can show the subject at a glance. Academic, Academic Achievement, Reading, Science Star, Art, Music and Drama are all available, along with Merit Award, Attendance Award and Outstanding Achievement. The centre is included on any trophy that takes one.
Budgets per pupil
A budget usually arrives as a single figure, so turn it into two numbers: the cost per pupil in the year group, and the cost per prize winner. Say Year 11 has 180 pupils and the budget is £360. That is £2 for every pupil in the year. It pays for 36 prizes at around £10 each, so one pupil in five goes home with something.
Use the second number to choose the award:
| Budget per prize winner | Where to look |
|---|---|
| Around £5 | Mini Shield School Award, smaller Jade Glass Rectangle Award |
| Around £10 | Allstar Achievement Award, Wreath Centre Plaque, Spirit Cup |
| Around £15 | Utopia Star Award, a small Heritage Cup |
| £25 and up | Jade Block Award, Jade Glass Peak Award, a larger cup for the top prize |
Treat those as rough guides and check the current price on each page. You do not have to spend the same on every pupil. Many schools set one amount for subject prizes and spend more on the Headteacher's Award.
The discount helps here, because glass and trophies count together. Those 36 prizes reach the 7% band, and it comes off automatically in the basket. A department that orders on its own misses that, so try to bring every prize into one order.
The Jade Glass Rectangle Award is worth a look if you run several evenings. It comes in seven heights, so each year group from Year 7 to Year 13 could have its own, and the older pupils get the taller piece. See our jade glass awards and school trophies for the rest.
Engraving a name list
Most mistakes happen before an order reaches us, so give the list some care:
- Build one spreadsheet with a row for each award, showing the prize, the pupil's name and the year.
- Export names from the school system where you can, as retyping is where errors creep in.
- Ask form tutors which name each pupil goes by. The name on the system is not always the one a family expects to see.
- Have a second person check hyphens, double-barrelled surnames and unusual spellings.
- Send only what goes on the plate. We do not need dates of birth, candidate numbers or grades.
- Email the list to sales@tradetrophies.co.uk, with one line for each plate.
Each plate can carry its own wording at no extra charge, so 60 different plates are no trouble. You pay no set-up fee and nothing per letter, which means a long surname costs the same as a short one. Should a line run long for its plate, we check with you before cutting it. Most plates suit two or three short lines, written like this:
- Mathematics Prize / Zara Ahmed / 2027
- Governors' Prize / Daniel Price / Year 11
- Most Improved / Year 9 / Ruby Clarke
More examples are on our wording ideas page.
Working with the finance office
Speak to the finance office when you start planning, not after you have chosen the trophies. Most will want the same few things:
- A budget code: find out which budget pays, and whether departments or the PTA are contributing.
- A clear total: the prices you see include VAT, and there is an ex-VAT price for school accounts as well, so you can give them both figures.
- One order where possible: several small orders mean more paperwork for them and a smaller discount for you.
- Time: approval can take longer than choosing the awards, so ask how long to allow.
If your school has a set way of ordering or paying, ring us on 0121 667 0310 before you start, and we will tell you what we can do. Our schools page has more on school accounts.
Cups that stay at school
Some prizes belong to the school, not the pupil. A house cup or a memorial prize can go in the cabinet, with a small keepsake for each winner. For a roll of names, a shield with record plates saves you buying a new cup each year.
On the evening, and after it
Some pupils will not turn up, especially former Year 11s who have moved on to college. Decide in advance who keeps their award and how it reaches them. Set the table in the same order as the printed programme, and give the person reading the names a copy with any tricky pronunciations marked. Our guide to planning a presentation evening has a timeline you can adapt, and when to order trophies helps you pick a date to have the list finished.