CPRE Hertfordshire’s 2025 Children’s Art Competition

CPRE Hertfordshire is delighted to announce that submissions are now open for our Children’s Art Competition 2025 for all primary school children in Hertfordshire aged 5-11 years.

The theme this year is:

My Adventures in the Countryside

Camping on a summers evening, walking your dog through woodlands, building dens in the forest. What adventures do your children love having in the countryside?

There is a prize for the winning school and individual prizes in each age group category, plus a special ceremony in the autumn to showcase and celebrate all our young artists.

The benefits of young people engaging with the countryside have never been more important:

• Children’s mental, physical and emotional health and wellbeing are improved by being in and looking at nature
• The countryside and nature bring topics to life across many aspects of the primary school curriculum.
• Appreciation of and connecting with nature is key within the teaching of climate change awareness.
• Art is an inspiring media for engaging with many children and has numerous known emotional, physical, cognitive and learning benefits.

Judges

This year we are very excited to announce that we have three artists who will be judging the entries: Susan Cooper, Kathy Evershed and Erin Brown.

Read more about our three judges below.

Prizes and categories

The winning school

The overall winning school will receive £500 to spend on creating an environmentally-friendly outdoor space at their school; this could be a gardening space for the children, a nature area, a food growing area, or gardening tools and plants for a learning or after-school club activity.

The winning pupils

There are individual prizes for the winning pupils in the following age categories:

• Reception
• Years 1-2
• Years 3-4
• Years 5-6

Closing date

The closing date for the competition is Friday 16^th May.

–

With special thanks to Tesco Stronger Starts in partnership with Groundworks UK, who have funded this year’s Children’s Art Competition.

–

How to enter

We are asking primary school children in Hertfordshire to think about nature all around them to produce a piece of artwork which explores and captures what adventures they most enjoy having in the countryside.

Terms and conditions

1. The competition is open to all primary school children in Hertfordshire. If your child/children are home schooled you can still enter using the instructions below but please indicate the ages of the child/children.
2. Please submit 8 pieces of artwork per school – two for each year group category: Reception, Years 1-2, Years 3-4 and years 5-6. If a teacher wishes to send on behalf of their class (as only certain year groups are taking part) this will also be accepted and CPRE Hertfordshire will make the selection.
3. Entrants are asked to create a piece of A4 artwork in any medium, providing it is original artwork (no computer-generated images).
4. Each entry should be the work of one child only.
5. A digital image of the original artwork should be saved as a .jpg file and attached to an email to artcompetition@cpreherts.org.uk
6. The file name for each piece of artwork should be clearly marked with the entrant’s name, age, school year and school. Example:  Gillian W, age 10, Y6, St Hildas School.jpg
7. All entries should be received no later than Friday 16^th May.
8. By submitting an entry, permission is granted to CPRE Hertfordshire to use that image in the charity’s publicity including website and social media.
9. The winners will be contacted by CPRE Hertfordshire by the end of the summer term.

–

Our 2025 judges

Susan Cooper

Susan Cooper enjoys painting and helping others to realise they too can paint. She runs an art group, goes on painting retreats and is addicted to trying new media and techniques. During the covid restrictions, she painted pet portraits for charity and raised over £4000.

Kathy Evershed

Kathy Evershed is a Landscape Painter, Teacher and Business Owner from St Albans. She began classes for children from the “Shed” in her garden over 15 years ago and has since built up “Artshed” with her husband, specializing in providing Art Tuition and Art Holiday Camps in primary schools: Shedloadsoffun.com

Erin Brown

Erin Brown is an award winning Northern Irish illustrator who lives and works on the beautiful island of Jersey. After graduating university with a bachelor’s degree in fine art, she developed a passion for stories and children’s books. She has worked with clients all over the world such as Oxford University Press, The O’Brien Press and Little Tiger Press.  Instagram: @erinbrownillo    Website: http://erinbrownillo.uk