This award will reward someone who has made a significant contribution to international education. It could be a well-known figure or a local hero. In your submission, explain exactly what the individual has achieved in their career and why you feel they deserve the trophy. Your nomination should include at least three independent testimonials. Please check with the nominee beforehand that they are happy to have their name put forward.

Setting up a new international school is tough. Ensuring that it is well-staffed, the rolls are full, it is financially credible, the curriculum works and it is welcomed by the local community is a huge challenge. This award aims to reward this exacting work. We will look for evidence of success in all these criteria. This category is open to any school that has opened its doors to students within the past three academic years – it can be standalone, or part of a wider group. We will want to see evidence and data as proof of success

If your school puts student contribution at the heart of its work, then this award is for you. This award recognises a project, initiative or programme that has had a significant impact on student voice in a school. The project could be student- or teacher-led and could involve an individual or group. The initiative should still be running in the academic year 2019-20. Please provide evidence of how the project was successful in being adopted or initiated by students and how it built both their confidence and voice.

If your school is outward facing, then you should submit an entry for this award. We are looking for schools that can show how they work with and support their local communities or collaborate with other schools, local businesses, universities or colleges. Judges will need to see evidence of effective engagement through testimonials from partners or the local community.

Wellbeing and mental health should be central to everything that international schools do. We want to see evidence of a project or projects put in place to support staff or students. Happy students make for happy teachers and vice versa. We want to see whole-school initiatives or schemes that have benefited specific targeted groups. Please provide evidence of effect, testimonials and case studies.

This award will recognise a school that demonstrates a commitment to excellence and participation in sport and extracurricular provision. Good-quality evidence of success, impact and widening participation must be provided. To impress the judges, a school's submission text should address all aspects of these criteria. Supporting material should provide as much additional detail as possible, including relevant statistics, but without unnecessary repetitions. The application should reveal how a school's sport and/or extracurricular work is succeeding on a broad front. This is not about win-lose ratios.

We would like to see entries from international schools that put creativity at the heart of their work. This isn’t about individual projects in art, drama, music or design (although it could take in one or all of these subjects); this is about making children think differently, beyond the strictures of the conventional curriculum. Ideally, schools that enter should have taken a whole-school or cross-curricular approach to one or more projects and seen a blossoming in creativity in their students. While, of course, creativity is hard to measure, we would like to see evidence that the scheme or schemes have benefited either the entire school, the targeted group of students and/or the wider community.

International schools have often been at the cutting edge of edtech. This award recognises measurable excellence in the use of technology by a teacher or a school. Judges will be looking for tangible evidence that the thoughtful and considered implementation of technology has had a positive impact on educational outcomes of students. They will take into account the scope of the use of technology and the different aspects of school life and improvement its use has influenced, as well as academic achievement. Please supply any relevant data and case studies.

Most international schools are, of course, comprehensive, and the best welcome all kinds of students through their doors, providing inclusive education in its truest sense. Many are real innovators in educating the children with learning challenges – and often they are the exemplars of such work in their host country. We are looking for a truly innovative intervention or initiative that has transformed the life chances or educations of these children. We will want evidence of the success of this work through case studies and testimonials from staff, students or parents.

International teachers increasingly value professional development above everything else. Indeed, the success of schools is defined by the quality of staff, and how well they are motivated and supported. This category recognises the importance of good employers who are able retain and get the most out of their staff while acting both ethically and professionally. The judges will want to see evidence of developing policy and practice that really develops a school’s teachers to become even better and more committed than they were already.

International schools are increasingly catering for local students. They are also increasingly providing bilingual teaching and bilingual curricula. Others have developed world-class innovation in teaching to students for whom English is a second language. This award will reward schools who provide an excellent, horizon-widening experience for their students, who achieve excellent results in a second language. Evidence of both will be required.

Word-class international schools are known for their innovation. The best are not satisfied with simply providing an education through the same old curriculum. The best use the independence enjoyed by many to push the boundaries of what is possible. This category will reward an initiative or intervention that truly stretches the boundaries of what is possible within the IB, trying new things, innovating and experimenting. Evidence must be provided of the success of the innovation through testimonials from students, teachers and parents: this will not simply reward a school that achieves stellar results. It is open to primary, elementary, secondary, middle, high or all-through schools.

Word-class international schools are known for their innovation. The best are not satisfied with simply providing an education through the same old curriculum. The best use the independence enjoyed by many to push the boundaries of what is possible. This category will reward an initiative or intervention that truly stretches the boundaries of what is possible within the English national curriculum, trying new things, innovating and experimenting. Evidence must be provided of the success of the innovation through testimonials from students, teachers and parents: this will not simply reward a school that achieves stellar results. It is open to primary, secondary or all-through schools.

Word-class international schools are known for their innovation. The best are not satisfied with simply providing an education through the same old curriculum. The best use the independence enjoyed by many to push the boundaries of what is possible. This category will reward an initiative or intervention that truly stretches the boundaries of what is possible within an American or Australian curriculum, trying new things, innovating and experimenting. Evidence must be provided of the success of the innovation through testimonials from students, teachers and parents: his will not simply reward a school that achieves stellar results. It is open to primary, elementary, secondary, middle, high or all-through schools.

It is in the nature of international schools to be global in outlook: they often cater for the most extraordinarily diverse communities. But we are looking for an intervention or initiative that takes this to the next level: a school that inculcates in their students a truly global and international outlook, a school that believes through its work that it brings down international borders. This could be through curriculum innovation, through extracurricular projects or through work to fundamentally alter the philosophy of a school and its student body – or a combination of all three. We will want to see evidence of the success of this work through testimonials from students, teachers and/or parents.

This is the big one, the best of the best, the most coveted trophy of all. The winners of any of the other categories (apart from lifetime achievement) will be automatically entered for this award. The winner will be announced as the finale to the awards ceremony. Entries are not required for this category.