This week Queen’s launches the competition phase of the Anthea Bell Prize for Young Translators 2025-26, sending out ‘creative translation’ competition tasks to Modern Foreign Language teachers at 1,500 schools across the UK.
The Anthea Bell Prize for Young Translators is the Queen’s College Translation Exchange’s flagship project, launched in 2020 to get students aged 11-18 translating enriching, authentic texts with creativity and rigour. The Prize is free to enter and offers secondary school students aged 11-18 the opportunity to translate poetry, fiction, and non-fiction. The Prize currently runs in six languages: French (into English and into Welsh), German, Italian, Mandarin, Russian (including for beginners), and Spanish. Last year, over 22,000 students participated.
The translations will be judged by a team of Oxford students and professional literary translators, with Area and National Winners to be announced in June 2026. The texts to be translated include extracts from novels and memoirs, rhyming poems, children’s non-fiction, and traditional folktales. Like the practice resources for the Prize, these texts often match up to key areas on the MFL curriculum, including publicity, media, tourism and travel, festivals and traditions, identity, culture, and life in a global or multicultural society.
The ambition of the Prize has always been to give teachers and students high quality resources that bring creativity and culture into the classroom, and to combat the worrying decline in language-learning at GCSE, A-Level and University. The Queen’s College has a rich history in teaching and research in Modern Languages, and continues to be one of the best places to study Modern Languages in Oxford. The Translation Exchange’s work brings this reputation into classrooms across the country, and the Anthea Bell Prize continues to grow year on year.
Teachers can register here to access this year’s competition tasks. Please visit our FAQs and read our Guide for Teachers for more information.
What teachers are saying about the prize
Last year was the first time we joined the competition and it was such a brilliant experience for teachers and students alike. We had tremendous interest in all languages taught in school as well as other native languages for some. The fact that each resource is organised in different levels, it meant even my younger students felt a sense of achievement and a real opportunity to win. Looking forward to this year’s competition.
Anthea Bell Prize teacher (2025, North East of England)
Last year was the first year I led the competition in my school, and I found it really enriching for students. The pre-competition resources allowed me to run various sessions for students about the different translation types, and I had good levels of engagement from a range of students. I like that the resources were varied and allowed students to engage with poetry, prose, and non-fiction texts. I love that students at all levels of their language learning journeys can enter.
Anthea Bell Prize teacher (2025, North West of England)
Our experience of the Anthea Bell Prize for Young Translators has been extremely positive. After taking part for the first time last year, multiple students chose to join the competition again this year, which already shows how motivating and inspiring they have found the process. I’ve noticed a real shift in how students now approach translation tasks in GCSE lessons: they are far more engaged, intrigued, and willing to experiment. The resources, especially the creative texts and the scaffolded guidance, have helped them understand that translation is not simply a black-and-white exercise, but a craft that involves nuance, choice, and preserving meaning. This creative dimension has made translation feel alive for them, and it has deepened their understanding of both languages.
Anthea Bell Prize teacher (2025, East of England)
[Our experience of the Prize] has been very positive. We have been competing for about 5 years now and quite a number of pupils have moved up the age categories. We use the materials in class, but also use them as independent learning tools. It has been most enjoyable getting involved.
Anthea Bell Prize teacher (2025, Northern Ireland)
