Discover the power of forming an argument

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Political Education For Students encourages young people to develop and nurture their political interests, knowledge, understanding, and to become fantastic political writers. Our essay competition encourages clarity, argument, reasoning, analysis, evaluation, independence and political literacy. The questions that are posed are deliberately broad, allowing students to have the opportunity to take their responses in several ways. Each question, however, is deliberately challenging, thought-provoking and multifaceted, encouraging the author to adopt a clear position from the start. 

Entering an essay in our competition can build knowledge and develop a whole set of skills. All of the entrants will be reviewed and assessed by teachers of A Level Politics, and the winning entry will personally receive £500, plus a free workshop (worth £750) for their school. Three runners up will personally receive £100, plus free PSHE resources (worth £200) for their school. The successful candidate and three runners-up will have their work published on our website.

The Political Education For Students essay competition is open to any student (up to those aged who will be in their final year of school education on August 31 2025) worldwide. All candidates must register using the form and pay a £9.99 administration fee. Only registered candidates can enter the competition by  Sunday, 29 June 2025. Any student who wishes to enter after this deadline can, subject to a late administration fee of £30. The deadline for emailing final essays is Sunday, 31 August 2025. Once you have registered, you will receive a confirmation email and can begin to write your essay immediately. Schools are able to pay the registration fee on behalf of their students, though this is a matter for each individual school.

You will be asked to nominate an academic referee on the registration form. This should be a teacher who is familiar with your work. Whilst all work will be run through anti-plagiarism and AI software, a referee should also be able to certify that the work is of your style and academic quality. Please ensure you use your school email address when completing the registration form for safeguarding reasons.

Essays must not exceed 2,500 words in length. Whilst endnotes and bibliographies are to be used, students should not use footnotes where necessary. Final essays should be emailed, in PDF format, to office@pefs.co.uk. All PDFS should be saved as SURNAME/FIRST NAME/ESSAY TITLE NUMBER (e.g. SMITH-JOHN-2)

You may submit an essay response to multiple questions; however, each needs a separate registration form and payment. If only one payment is received, the first submitted essay will be the only one entered.

Candidates must produce an individual piece of work. Paired or group entries will not be marked.

Due to the number of essays submitted, we cannot provide feedback on individual entries. 

The winner and three runners-up will be notified in early September. 

Failure to adhere to the above terms will result in disqualification. No refunds of registration fees are permissible in these circumstances. We also do not return registration fees for students who do not complete and/or submit their essays.