The Family Learning Awards celebrate imaginative, innovative, and inclusive family learning delivered through events, activities, courses and initiatives.
Whether you are entering for the first time or have applied in the past, if you are doing exemplary work, we want to hear from you! Applications are open from Monday 2 February until 12pm on Thursday 19 March 2026.
Here, we share ways to polish your application, communicate your excellent work, and give you our top tips for an award‑winning submission – including insights from last year’s winners.
1. Follow the category's criteria
On each of our submission forms, we’ve included key themes and bullet points on what to include when writing your nomination. These are the criteria against which your application will be scored!
It’s important to evidence each point or substantiate any claims you make. For example, for the Family Learning in the Early Years Award, one of the criteria is to provide a ‘Clear explanation of your activity and how your activity supported families with children aged 0 to 5 years old’ using:
- playing and exploring
- active learning
- creating and thinking critically.
Instead of saying “Our activities have supported children aged 0 to 5 years old to play and explore”, you should include details on what the activities were to support ‘playing and exploring,’ how they supported children, and what the results were.
2. Highlight achievements with clear examples
Bring your achievements to life with specific examples. If you are writing that your provision is "fun, inclusive and creative", ensure you give specific examples, provide statistics, or share an anecdote from a participant that demonstrates this.
For example, Durham University, winner of the Family Learning Innovation Award in 2025, used figures to show the reach of their ‘Street Cosmos’ project and provided detailed examples to demonstrate creativity and partnership working. Instead of writing “we deliver our programmes using creativity,” they provided an in-depth explanation of how they used creative methods, such as “theatre, art, zine-making and interactive workshops” to engage learners of all ages and abilities.
To evidence their reach and partnerships, they said: "Since its launch, Street Cosmos has engaged over 11,000 people across 95 events, collaborating with 35 artists and 37 scientists to make space science accessible... Working with three key community partners—Blackhall (coastal), Bishop Auckland (industrial), and Barnard Castle (rural)—Street Cosmos co-designs activities that reflect local interests while fostering long-term connections between communities and scientists."
Including this level of detail helps us to understand the context, need and, impact of your activities.
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Pictured: Durham University’s ‘Street Cosmos’ project – winner of the 2025 Family Learning Innovation Award
3. Include quotes or supporting evidence
To shape your application further, you could include short quotes or photos from the families you work with, collaborators and community partners, peers, colleagues, and anyone involved in your initiative. These examples could highlight achievements, how participants or partners have been inspired, or demonstrate the difference made in their lives, or simply be used to back up a claim you are making in your application.
Including quotes from different perspectives helps to showcase the dynamism of your initiatives from the people who participate or make it happen, bringing it to life.
Please ensure to get permission from the person providing the quote or featured in the photo. If you are chosen as a winner or finalist, we may use this quote in the case study!
Hear from previous winners
Speaking about their Family Learning in the Early Years Award win, Lauren Seager-Smith, CEO, The For Baby’s Sake Trust, said:
“We’re absolutely delighted that For Baby’s Sake has won the Family Learning Award in the Early Years category. It’s a powerful recognition of the journeys our families take, working together to address the trauma of domestic abuse and create lasting change for their babies.
“We entered the Family Learning Awards because our work is centred on whole-family transformation, supporting learning, healing, and growth from pregnancy and throughout parenthood. At the heart of For Baby’s Sake is a belief that change is possible if parents are given the right support to address the root causes of harm and are empowered to nurture and protect their baby.”
Read more from our previous winners to help inspire you ahead of completing your own application.
To discover more information about the awards and complete an application, visit the Family Learning Awards 2026 webpage.