How to enter

Applications for the 2024 Sandford Awards are now closed. To register your interest in the 2025 awards, applications will open on Monday 2nd December and the details to apply will be available here.


Eligibility

Organisations would normally have a site or a collection, but consideration will be given to organisations which work in other ways. Learning programmes must focus on the site and/or the collection and be site led by core staff and/or through freelance staff and/or volunteers. Organisations must offer a formal schools’ programme and this programme must support the relevant curriculum across the home countries. Learning experiences must be substantially different from any experience that could be replicated, for example, by a teacher in a classroom. Please download our Guidance for Applicants, available on this page for more information about eligibility, the award process and how to enter.

Entry process

To enter your site for a Sandford Award, you need to complete an application form and submit it by email. You can find an example entry form on this page.

Cost of entry

The entry fee to apply for a Sandford Award is currently £400 per site and is reviewed annually. If your organisation manages more than one site, you should submit a separate application and entry fee for each.

The Award is valid for five years, after which all Award holding sites are invited to renew their application for a full reappraisal of their learning programme. Failure to reapply or to achieve a Sandford Award would result in the organisation losing their listing as a Sandford Award holding site, and with it, the right to display the Sandford Award winner logo on communications and promotional materials.

Sandford Award timetable

  • Monday 4 December 2023: entries open.

  • Friday 16 February 2024: entries close.

  • Friday 1 March: onsite assessment visits start

  • Friday 19 July : onsite assessments end

  • Assessors then compile their reports and submit them for review and moderation and then to the full assessors’ panel for consideration. The panel makes their recommendations to the Board of Trustees for consideration at their meeting

  • Thursday 5 September: The Board of Trustees meet to consider the reports and recommendations

  • Sandford Award applicants are notified of the outcome shortly after the meeting

  • The Sandford Award Presentation Ceremony will be hosted by our supporters, Historic Royal Palaces at Kensington Palace in the Clore Learning Centre on Tuesday 10 December

Banner image: M&S Archive, Sandford Award holder