This year, the Ovid competition is going through some changes but it will still be the same wonderful celebration of your students’ engagement with the ancient world and its tales. We at the Cambridge School Classics Project will still be welcoming entries from Year 7 students across the UK, however this academic year the judging and awarding will take place in the Spring Term. Please make sure you read all of the advice on this page and download our Guidance Document to make sure your students' work is eligible for consideration.
The deadline for competition entries is Friday 7th February 2025, although of course you are free to submit entries sooner if you are ready.
Students should make use of our Classical Tales retellings of Ovid's Metamorphoses to come up with a creative response to the myths in any one of our five categories:
Performance
Artefact
Creative Writing
Animation
NEW: Comic strip or cartoon
Click on the section headers below for further information
Please let us know your school will be entering by emailing us at amici@cambridgescp.com.
Familiarise yourself with our latest Guidance Document for more on our category guidelines, student permission requirements and terms of entry.
Complete your creative work using our Ovid Stories of Change materials (note, entries based on other myths or resources are not eligible for entry) and if necessary select your entries for submission.
Teachers or other supervisory adults complete the online registration form and submit their entries (no more than one entry per category) to amici@cambridgescp.com by Wednesday 7th February 2025.
Due to the complexities of scheduling a live event that is accessible for all schools and contexts, this year we are moving to an asynchronous prize giving event designed to be used at your convenience. This will comprise video and audio resources as well as accompanying activities and teacher guidance.
Like the live version of previous years, the session will include a storytelling performance as well as judges feedback and winners announcement. In addition, we will be partnering with one of our international amici to create Ubiquitous Ovid, an activity exploring the place of Ovid and Greco-Roman myth in the culture of other countries. We hope to be able to visit a new country each year!
More details about the event this year will be available closer to the date. Every student who enters the Ovid Competition receives a certificate and winners in each category receive a prize.
Our judges have long been inspired by the myths of the ancient world and each of them is a different kind of storyteller, whether through the written word, performance or animation. Learn a little more about them below.
Performance
Hugh Lupton
Hugh has been working as a storyteller for forty years, and more recently as a writer as well. He tells stories from many different cultures. He has performed in schools, arts centres, theatres, prisons, village halls, at fairs, festivals and historical sites, all over Britain and in many other parts of the world. With Daniel Morden, Hugh has been the CSCP’s storyteller of choice for their Greek Myths project, and his is often the voice you can hear on Classical Tales!
Art and Artefacts
Dr Rosanna Omitowoju
Rosanna is a Fellow in Classics at King's College, Cambridge. You can read more about Rosanna's work here.
To find out more about what Rosanna will be looking for from winning entries this year, take a look at the video below.
Creative Writing
Caroline Lawrence
Caroline is the best-selling author of numerous books for children, including the Roman Mysteries, the Roman Quests and CSCP's own Amarantus and his Neighbourhood. Her latest book, Pantheon, is a handy guide to the Greek Gods and Goddesses. You may also find this this tip from Caroline's book How to Write a Great Storyhere.
For more hints and tips for entries in the Creative Writing category this year, take a look at the video below.
Animation
Steve K. Simons
Steve is one of the founders of the Panoply Vase Animation Project, and has been making animations inspired by the ancient world and its artefacts since 2007. You can see some of Steve's animations here.
To find out what Steve will be looking for from winning entries in the animation category, take a look at the video below.
Comic strip or cartoon
Laura Jenkinson-Brown
Teacher and illustrator Laura is the creative mind behind Greek Myth Comix. She has worked as an illustrator on several projects, including CSCP's story based history course Amarantus and his Neighbourhood, our Key Stage 2 version of the Ovid materials, and even the latest version of the Cambridge Latin Course.
To find out what Laura will be looking for from winning entries in the animation category, take a look at the video below.
Classic Tales are storytelling resources created by CSCP in partnership with tellers Hugh Lupton and Daniel Morden. Based on "The Metamorphoses" by the Roman poet Ovid (1st century CE), Tales of Change provides 20 oral retellings of famous Greek myths, ranging from ancient stories of creation to the deceptive relationships between the gods and humankind.
Ovid's stories often return to the themes of change and transformation: this is the meaning of the word "metamorphoses". They explore the unpredictable nature of fate and the ways people strive to make sense of themselves and the world they live in, themes that are echoed in much of world literature and continue to inspire storytellers across the globe today.
Please note that entries for CSCP's Ovid Competition must be based on myths from this suite of resources. This is to ensure a fair contest for all who enter.
The stories in Tales of Change are intended to promote literacy skills at KS3 by utilising the power of stories and oral storytelling.
The resources have been designed for flexible use in classrooms. They can be taught in full and sequentially, or they can be approached in smaller groupings for those with less classroom time or who are teaching remotely or off-timetable. Suggestions for picking which stories to use in your classroom can be found here.
As well the audio recordings, each story is accompanied by summaries, transcripts, teaching suggestions and weblinks.
We are delighted that the charity Classics for All have been inspired by our work and have launched several of their own Ovid Competitions via their regional hubs in Bristol, the West Midlands and Liverpool. While we support these great events and are pleased that people are enjoying our materials, these are not CSCP events and are not connected to the official Classic Tales Ovid Competition. If you are looking for information on one of these competitions please contact your regional Classics for All representative or follow the links below.
