Style Guide v31.10.2024

Our vision is a society that values and celebrates the great work that takes place in education every day across the UK.  We want teaching and support staff across early years, schools and colleges to feel appreciated, celebrated and proud of the work they do and the difference they make.  

We run two powerful campaigns: the annual Pearson National Teaching Awards and Thank a Teacher.

The Pearson National Teaching Awards recognise and celebrate transformational teaching across the UK and are televised by the BBC each year.

The Thank a Teacher campaign enables anyone to show their appreciation for the outstanding staff working in education with a free, digital card.  Each year we celebrate National Thank a Teacher Day, a day when we encourage the whole of the UK to join us in thanking all staff who work in education.

Our tone is professional yet friendly, to cater to all our audiences. We use British English by default.

Our content should be:

• Thoughtful but not verbose – we should present the right amount of information in direct, concise language. Take time to create it so you have time to cut the word count if needed.
• Inclusive, but not over-simplified – we use welcoming, inclusive language, without jargon – where we use acronyms, the first instance of these should be written in full.
• Uplifting but not grandiose – The Teaching Awards Trust and its campaigns are fantastic and very much welcomed and needed in the education sector – but we’re also aware we’re a small organisation in a big sector. We should therefore use uplifting, celebratory language with humility.

Use of images

We should be mindful when using either stock or in-house images that these reflect as many diverse members of the education sector and society in general as possible, looking at age, race, culture, disability and phase of education.

Inclusive, gender-neutral language

This list can be added to*. Examples of gender-neutral language we should use are:

• Chair or Chairperson, not Chairman
• They rather than he/she

Things to consider in all communications

• Thank a teacher is a consumer campaign; the language should be easy to understand, and cater to all audiences in an accessible but uncondescending manner.
• The Teaching Awards campaign is aimed at staff working in schools, who are often busy. They want to submit a successful entry into the Awards. Providing information in an easy to read, concise format, whilst explaining the process clearly is key.
• Stakeholders, and potential partners / sponsors should be communicated with in a professional tone, with key facts, key asks, and a summary of the Trust visible early on in all communications.
• Marketing comms should be attractive and diverse in terms of imagery and mindful of inclusivity in language. Calls to action should be clear, concise, motivating and highlight benefits of participation.

We don’t currently adhere to any accessibility guidelines in a formal manner. As a charity we should aim to develop this. Guidance can be found via https://blog.hubspot.com/website/web-accessibility 

• Children (teens will access TAT themselves, younger children with their parent’s help)  

• Parents  

• Senior leadership team members in schools and colleges  

• Bursurial staff to middle managers in schools and colleges 

• Early years settings staff at all levels  

• Marketing teams in larger multi academy trusts  

• Judges and Trustees (often working full time in their own roles) 

• C-suite executives at current and potential sponsor organisations  

• Corporate sponsors 

• Department for Education, Local Authorities, regional partners, and other decision-maker stakeholders 

• National government education departments – UK wide 

• Other not-for-profit organisations (many of which are relatively small)  

Things to consider in all communications  

• Thank a teacher is a consumer campaign; the language should be easy to understand, and cater to all audiences in an accessible but uncondescending manner.  

•   The Teaching Awards campaign is aimed at staff working in schools, who are often busy. They want to submit a successful entry into the Awards. Providing information in an easy to read, concise format, whilst explaining the process clearly is key. 

• Stakeholders, and potential partners / sponsors should be communicated with in a professional tone, with key facts, key asks, and a summary of the Trust visible early on in all communications.  

• Marketing comms should be attractive and diverse in terms of imagery and mindful of inclusivity in language. Calls to action should be clear, concise, motivating and highlight benefits of participation.  

House font

• Standard copy should be in font size 11. Headings can be point size 14 or 16.
• All emails, internal and external documents should use the same font consistently
• Quotes should be in italics

Teaching Awards specific Examples:

• When referring to a winner – not preceded by gold, silver or bronze (i.e their ‘title’ the w should be small case.
• When referring to afternoon tea in general it should not be capitalised – but when given its full title it should. E.G.: We would like to invite you to the Silver Winners’ Afternoon Tea vs We hope you enjoy the afternoon tea.
• When referring to the awards in a sentence they should be referred to as awards – not A
• Register Your Interest – title case should be used in the title, but sentence case in all other instances.
• Title case should be used for website headings
• Thank a Teacher should be capitalised as a title but never when explaining you can thank a teacher, teaching assistant etc.

Exceptions for capitalisation within standard copy:

• Thank a Teacher
• National Thank a Teacher Day
• The Pearson National Teaching Awards
• The National Teaching Awards
• The Teaching Awards Trust
• The Teaching Awards
• Teaching Award (when referring to winning one)
• Gold sponsorship package
• Silver sponsorship package
• Bronze sponsorship package
• Gold Winner
• Silver Winner
• Bronze Winner
• Highly Commended nominee
• Certificate of Excellence nominee
• Certificate of Recognition nominee
• Silver Winners’ Afternoon Tea
• UK Ceremony and Dinner – if not preceded by UK ceremony and dinner should be small case
• (The) Pearson National Teaching Awards UK Ceremony

(The) Pearson National Teaching Awards UK Ceremony

BBC’s The One Show

When writing in an external document the awards should be referred to as The Pearson National Teaching Awards and thereafter the following can be used:  The Awards or The Teaching Awards

BBC’s The One Show to avoid the repetition but would say The One Show, BBC One, 7pm if giving out programme info.

Nord Anglia Education

the Department for Education

The Sunday Times

Hays Education

PiXL

Step into Teaching

Randstad Education

• In school names – each word to be capitalised. EG: St John The Baptist CE School
• Keep school names exactly as they are – i.e. if a school’s name is St John The Baptist CE School don’t change it Church of England. Don’t change CE to CofE etc.
• In sixth form colleges, always write the school name as per the one provided to us, even if this is inconsistent amongst them – i.e. Some write VI, 6 or sixth – that is their school name and must be kept.

• Winner name, school name, town, county
• Award name not to be preceded with The Award for – i.e. will read Digital Innovator of the Year; Unsung Hero; Excellence in Special Needs Education
• Category winner page to state Further Education Lecturer/Team of the Year but FE Lecturer/Team of the Year thereafter.
• Category titles. When used in a list, the first letter of all words to be capitalised apart from ‘a’, ‘for’ or ‘the’ e.g. Digital Innovator of the Year / Making a Difference – Secondary School of the Year.

• Subject names – only language subjects should be capitalised. i.e not maths/geography…
• When schools refer to groups such as Eco Council, ‘The Ladybird Team’, The Additional Learning Support (ALS) Team, the word ‘team’ should be small case but follow their lead for the rest of the team name
• Senior Leadership Team – team should not be capitalised
• Governing Board – no need to capitalise board or either word if in the middle of a sentence
• Headteacher – all one word, capital H
• Deputy Headteacher
• SEND – this is an acronym for special educational needs and disability and should be capitalised. If writing the actual words they should be small case

The way we refer to award categories will change according to place of use

• Gold and Silver Winner graphics will have the winner’s photograph, name, school, town and the category written as Digital Innovator of the Year
• Social media use will drop the words The Award for
• The categories list that appears on the website categories page will be written without the prefix The Award for
• The individual category pages will be listed with the category name without the prefix The Award for – see above, these two should be consistent with each other 
• Certificates will keep the text The Award for as this is a more formal recognition document
• When writing letters to nominators we should use the following copy (or similar): Non shortlisted Unfortunately, <<Nominee name>> entered in to the Digital Innovator of the Year category didn’t make it through to the final stages of judging this year and has not been shortlisted as a finalist / We are delighted that Liz Barber entered in to the Teaching Assistant of the Year category and has been shortlisted as a finalist. In the letter announcing their nominee is a Silver Winner: <<Nominee first name<< will now be considered for a Gold Teaching Award in the Unsung Hero category and final results will be announced in late November.
• On the admin website the field label will remain as The Award for… due to field mapping issues and so much historic data in the same format. We can be less formal outwardly facing.
• The Award for prefix will only be used on the admin pages of the website for reasons stated above, and also the drop-down list displayed when submitters choose a category.

Award categories for the 2025 Awards Year:

All can be prefixed with ‘The Award for’ in line with advice within this document. 

*replaced Impact through Partnership

** replaced Excellence in Special Needs Education

*** replaced Digital Innovator of the Year

ology

Example 1

• In the majority of subject areas, students with High Needs perform better than their non-SEND peers. High Needs should not be capitalised
• Trauma Informed Practice / Trauma Informed Care Advocacy and Mental Health First Aid. Trauma Informed Practice / Trauma Informed Care is written like this by professionals however there is no need for the A in advocacy or Mental Health First Aid to be capitalised.
• Every Teacher is a Teacher of SEND`. The Ts in teacher should not be capitalised
• At the end of the last academic year, 20% of College Leavers with High Needs were confident enough to progress on to Higher Education, a new internal record. College Leaver should not be capitalised. References to higher education should be lower case. It should be capitalised if being referred to as ‘HE’

Example 2:

• Alex is the Lead Teacher of Innovation in Teaching and Learning at Shaftesbury School. Lead Teacher Innovation Teaching Learning – none of these should be capitalised.
• He is an active head of faculty and leads the school’s award-winning STEAM (science,technology, engineering, art and mathematics) programme and ‘the future classroom’. This is correct – STEAM should be capitalised as it is an acronym but nothing else.
• Alex is currently completing his EdD through distanced learning at Bath University and has recently become a Hundred Ambassador, working in an advisory capacity to judge global innovations. EdD should be capitalised as it is a qualification.
• He has had a significant impact on Shaftesbury School’s students, parents and the local community as well as making global connections, including with a school in Ghana. This is all correct.

Use uppercase first letters (title case) when a job role is used in conjunction with the role holder’s name and forms part of their personal title. E.G. 

• Janet Smith, Headteacher of Battledown School, believes
• Mary Palmer, Chief Executive Officer, said

Use lowercase initial letters to refer to these roles in general, or where the job role is separated from the postholder’s name and does not form part of their personal title. Examples:

• We have briefed the chief executive officer on the use of the logo.
• Janet Smith was promoted to headteacher of Battledown School in May.
• Contact your relationship manager to ask for access to your account.

i.e. when referring to the role rather than the person, use lowercase.

Titles of qualifications can vary in capitalisation, but in general a generic qualification such as bachelor’s degree should be lowercase, and a specific component of that qualification should be title case. For example:

• Bachelor of Arts (BA)
• Bachelor of Science (BSc)
• Bachelor of Education (BEd)
• Certificate of Higher Education (CertHE)
• Higher National Diploma (HND)
• Postgraduate Certificate (PGCert)
• Tech level
• a bachelor’s degree
• a master’s degree
• a foundation degree
• an honours degree
• a postgraduate degree
• a diploma in health
• an advanced apprenticeship
• a higher apprenticeship
• a degree apprenticeship

When using the full title of a course, use title case:

• BA in Education and Pedagogy
• Chemistry A level
• Advanced Apprenticeship in Accounting

When referring to a subject in text, it should be lowercase (unless it is a proper noun):

• You can study more than just core subjects, such as mathematics, English, chemistry
• If you are studying for A levels in mathematics, English and chemistry

A level or Advanced level has a lowercase ‘l’.

When the organisation is used in the third person, for example The Teaching Awards Trust, or ‘the organisation’ ‘the charity’ it takes the singular form.

The Teaching Awards Trust is responsible for running two campaigns

The plural form is only used when we refer to the organisation in the first person.

We are responsible for running two campaigns

We use British English

Dates

Follow the British day-month-year sequence

• 25 September 2023
• Monday 25 September 2023
• Where dates need to be shortened, use either of the following: 25/09/23 or 05/09/2023
• If the date is a single numeral, it should be written / typed as 4 April 2024 or 04/04/24, rather than 04 April 2024 or 4/04/24
• Do not use ‘th’ or ‘st’, e.g. 18th September
• Don’t use:

• • 18.09.2016
  • 18.09.16
  • 18-09-2016
  • 18-09-16
  • 18:09:2016
  • 18:09:16

Use the 24-hour clock

Telephone numbers

Phone numbers should be grouped to make them easier to read. The first group is the STD code, followed by the remaining numbers in one or two groups.

Most STD codes are five numbers. The numbers that follow are grouped as two groups of three: 01332 590 500.

Non-five digit STD codes range from three to six digits. The numbers that follow are grouped as one or two groups:

• Three-digit STD code: 020 7589 5111
• Four-digit STD code: 0113 812 3113
• Six-digit STD code: 017687 32582

• Write all numbers 10 and over as numerals, up to 999,999.
• Write numbers zero to nine as words unless they are technical or precise, such as dates, figure or table titles, or relate directly to any statistics being presented. Examples:
  • On the one hand…
    This is the most effective of the two measures…
    7 March 2017
    1,000
    Figure 1
• Where a range crosses the 10 boundary, use numerals. E.G. 9 to 12 respondents, not nine to 12 respondents
• Write out generalised numbers as words. E.G. hundreds of years;
  in their thousands; per thousand entries
• Use figures for representing percentages: 4% or 4 per cent
• Larger numbers need a comma: 2,000 and 13,234.
• 2 million – space after the number 
• two million
• £2m – no space after the number
• £2 million – space after the number

• Put full stops, question marks and exclamation marks outside a bracket at the end of a sentence if the text is part of a sentence, and inside the bracket if the text is a full sentence.
• Part of a larger sentence: Our joining instructions will explain how you can add more tickets later (and if you paid an early bird fee, you will need to pay a further £30).
• The text stands independently: Our joining instructions will explain how you can add more tickets later . (If you paid a reduced fee, you will need to pay a further £11.)

Question marks, exclamation marks and elipses

• Use only one question or exclamation mark and avoid elipses (…) in all professional communications including emails.

If nominee for an award the text in the bullet is a complete sentence, it should begin with a capital letter and end with a full stop. The preceding sentence should not use a colon as an introductory punctuation mark.

If you have not entered the awards before, we’ve got plenty of advice to help.

• First of all plan what you write against each of the 4 points to cover in the category criteria.
• Ask your colleagues what they think of your nominee – what are their strengths?
• Have a look at our winner biographies from last year to see what kind of information you should be including.

An introductory sentence PLUS a bulleted list, which form a complete sentence if read together with the introductory line, begin with a lowercase letter and should not have a full stop. There should be no full stop after the final bullet point in the list.

Good entries should have:

• fully addressed the criteria
• a maximum of a thousand words and more than seven hundred and fifty
• highlight the reason you wanted to enter your

An ampersand can be used in headlines and official names.

For example:

• Awards & External Relationships Manager
• Ts & Cs

Colons and semicolons

When the part of the sentence before the colon leads on to the meaning or illustration after the colon.

Andrew has two responsibilities in the meeting: to greet the members and to take the minutes.

2. To introduce a list, with or without bullet points.

Style guides deal with items such as:

• colons and semi-colons
• headings and titles

3. Before a quotation, and sometimes before direct speech

The headline reads: ‘Students to pay more fees.’

Mary Palmer, Chief Executive said: ‘We are committed to using Pearson’s funding to ensure the continuation of the Teaching Awards.

Semi-colon  

As semi-colon suggests more equal status between the two parts of a sentence. It constitutes more of a break than a comma, but less than a full top. It is also used to link related but separate clauses in a sentence or list introduced by a colon (especially where some elements already include a comma).

Some reasons for entry are excellent; others are less so.

• Two spaces between the full stop and the next sentence
• Use full stops in g.and i.e.
• No full stop following common titles which are shortened forms of a word.
• Dr
• Mr
• St
• Mrs
• Ms
• Miss
• Mx
• Fr
• Sr
• Prof
• Rev

Full stops are not necessary after the initial capital letters commonly used as abbreviations for titles of organisations and countries.

• BBC
• USA
• UK

To indicate a missing letter or letters

• it’s = it is or it has
• don’t = do not
• it’ll = it will
• you’re = you are
• dos and don’ts, which should not have an apostrophe before the s in each word

In line with professional informality with the majority of our audience we should use  contractions to indicate a conversational style.

Informal, helpful

• I’m locked out of my entry form. What can I do?
• It’s not too late to enter but today is the deadline
• Don’t leave your entry to the last minute

More authoritative

• You are required to ensure the headteacher of other member of the sernior leadership team is aware you are submitting this entry

More formal when writing to senior executives in government, VIPs with whom we do not have an establish relationship and potential sponsors:

I am delighted to…(rather than I’m delighted to)

  Possessive apostrophes

The most common way to form a possessive is to add ‘s to the noun:

• the girl’s exam results

Plural nouns that do not end in s take ‘s in the possessive:

• men’s lockers
• children’s games

For nouns ending in s, add an apostrophe in all cases.

• James’ results
• Teaching Awards Trusts’ staff
• one day’s time
• two hours’ work
• five days’ leave

All text in emails should be Calibri 11pt and should have plain white backgrounds.

Ensure the subject line is clear and relevant. Be concise and to the point – a long email can be discouraging to read.

Email signature format

The email signature is updated a few times a year, in line with campaign points in the year.

Email signature from 1 November 2024:

Your Name

Your Title

The Teaching Awards Trust

E: your email

P: your tel number

W: www.teachingawards.com www.thankateacher.co.uk

www.teachingawardstrust.com 

Click here to learn how you can support our mission and impact.

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This e-mail and any attachments are confidential and are intended for the sole use of the named addressee(s). If you are not a named addressee you must not use, disclose or rely on this e-mail or any attachments to it; please notify the sender at the above address and then delete the e-mail from your system.  The views and opinions expressed in this e-mail and any attachments are not necessarily those of The Teaching Awards Company Ltd or those of its parent company The Teaching Awards Trust (limited by guarantee). Although we routinely screen for viruses, you should scan this e-mail and any attachments for viruses. Neither we nor our parent company accept any liability for any losses howsoever arising from the transmission of any virus or defect with this e-mail or its attachments. In order to protect our business, we reserve the right to monitor e-mails in accordance with relevant regulations.  The Teaching Awards Trust, 10 Queen St Pl, London EC4R 1BE Registered charity 1074968.

Thank a Teacher

• #ThankATeacher
• #ClassroomHeroes

The Pearson National Teaching Awards

• #TeachingAwards
• #TeachingHeroes