Competitions | Energy Sparks

Audience

This page provides help for all registered school users.

You will need to sign-in to follow the instructions on this page.

Overview

The Energy Sparks scoreboard helps us track school engagement with Energy Sparks; we also use our scoreboard to foster a healthy sense of competition between schools and encourage them to maximise energy savings.

Our main competition each year is the national Scoreboard Competition for which we usually offer a monetary prize. The prize should be spent on a sustainability project of the school’s own choosing.

We often run additional competitions during the school year such as switch-off days or seasonal activities where savings and participation are rewarded. These are publicised via the regular Energy Sparks newsletter, which is also used to announce winners.

Energy saving competitions are usually judged based on savings made between two date ranges - for example, gas consumption during a switch-off day compared with the same day the previous week. If necessary, gas consumption will be corrected for temperature changes between the two date ranges. The date range will always be published within the newsletter.

Not all schools will have suitable data, or will be able to make savings, during these periods. For this reason, we often also run a prize draw at the same time so that any school that completes a specified activity or programme within the defined time frame can be in with a chance of winning.

Scoring points

You can score points for your school by doing the following:

Completing an action or activity.
Providing more detail about your activity or action by attaching images or documents that describe what you have done in more detail.
Completing a whole programme of activities.
Completing all suggested activities from an Energy Sparks audit.

Although some actions and activities may be logged multiple times, there is a limited number of times that points will be awarded for each activity. For example, our Write an energy action plan for your school activity will receive points a maximum of twice a year.

Find out how to choose and record pupil activities, adult energy saving actions, and programmes.

How do the scoreboards work?

When your school logs a pupil activity or adult energy saving action, you will receive points.

The number of points your school has scored during the current academic year is displayed on your school's dashboard.

Your score will also be shown on the national scoreboard and on your regional scoreboard.

If your school has joined Energy Sparks as part of a Multi-Academy Trust or Local Authority group, your score will also be shown on your group scoreboard. You can see this by clicking on the name of your Trust or group (which you will find at the top of any of your school’s pages).

Currently prizes are awarded based on a school’s position on the national scoreboard.

Our annual national Scoreboard Competition finishes on 30th June each year and no points received for actions or activities logged after that date will contribute towards final scoreboard positions.

Scoreboards are reset at the beginning of September each year.

Competition rules

Schools must be current Energy Sparks users with an active Energy Sparks account to enter any Energy Sparks competitions or prize draws.
Scoreboard points are awarded for schools logging actions and activities on their Energy Sparks account. The number of points awarded is shown on the relevant page for each action or activity.
Actions and activities may be logged multiple times, but there is a limited number of times that points will be awarded for each activity. For example, our Write an energy action plan for your school activity will receive points a maximum of twice a year.
Schools are encouraged to record evidence that they have completed activities and actions - for example by providing pictures or descriptions of the activity carried out. Where schools record multiple occurrences of activities and actions, this evidence will be used to determine whether activities and actions have been undertaken. Schools will be contacted if this happens.
Energy Sparks reserves the right to remove activities or actions from a school’s dashboard where no evidence is given, or if the school’s conduct is contrary to the spirit or intention of the competition or prize draw.
Information and updates about any competitions and prize draws will be given in regular Energy Sparks newsletters. To receive these, please sign up here.
Closing dates will be published in newsletters. The annual prize finishes on 30th June each year and no points received for actions or activities logged after that date will contribute towards final scoreboard positions.
Energy Sparks reserves the right to update these Terms and Conditions from time to time and any updated version will be effective as soon as it is published on the website.

Running a competition within a Trust or Local Authority

Energy Sparks presents a scoreboard for each individual group - based on the Multi-Academy Trust or Local Authority the school signed up with.

This feature helps groups that have schools across different regions monitor engagement and also allows for localised competitions, such as rewarding schools that complete a particular activity or programme, or schools that meet energy saving targets.