SRS BSME Art Competition — Drawing and Painting, Digital Art and Photography for Four School-Year Groups, Scored Out of 100

Academic & Youth Fair · Student Arts Festival

School art competition for BSME member schools: drawing and painting, digital art and photography in four year groups (5-6, 7-9, 10-11 and 12-13), with a yearly theme, winner and runner-up prizes and four printed judging criteria.

A ready-made school art competition: three individual art categories entered by school year (5-6, 7-9, 10-11 and 12-13), a yearly theme, four printed judging criteria worth 25 marks each, and a winner and runner-up in every year group.

This template models a schools art competition run across the United Arab Emirates, open to students from Year 5 up to Year 13. It is built from the competition’s own 2024-25 rules and covers three art categories: Drawing and Painting, Digital Art and Photography. Every entry is the work of one student, so there are no team or group classes, and the competition is open to boys and girls together.

Entrants are placed by school year, not by birthday, so there are four groups: Year 5-6, Year 7-9, Year 10-11 and Year 12-13. Each of the three art categories runs in all four groups, giving twelve classes. School years are not ages, so the template stores approximate age bands (about 9 to 10, 11 to 13, 14 to 15 and 16 to 18) only so that the groups can exist; the real restriction is the year number printed on each group, and a coordinator should place students by the school year they are in.

The competition is themed. The 2024-25 theme printed in the rules was “Future Me”, and each year a new theme is announced, so an entry is expected to answer the theme rather than simply show a skilful picture. A school may run its own round first; the only time limit in the source is a two-hour limit for that school round on Drawing and Painting. Digital Art and Photography are submitted as finished files, so the template sets no time limit on them.

All three categories share one printed judging table worth 100 marks: Creative thinking 25, Using materials in an efficient way 25, Clarity of idea in the completed work 25 and Quality of final work 25. The rules also print a second five-criteria table elsewhere without saying which items it applies to, so the template uses the main four-criteria table throughout. Prizes are a winner and a runner-up in each year group, with no points attached to the places, and no entry fee is printed, so fees are installed as zero for you to set. Submission formats, paper sizes, photograph sizes and file specifications are organiser rules the software does not enforce: publish them yourself in your entry notice.

Where this event comes from

School art competitions built around a yearly theme and graded by school year are a long-standing way for schools and arts bodies to give young people a public outlet for drawing, painting and photography, and year-group bands are the usual way UAE schools place entrants.

Where this event is run

Themed school art competitions with year-group classes are run by schools, school federations and arts organisations across the Gulf, the United Kingdom and many other countries. Drawing and painting is the oldest category, digital art and photography are now common alongside it, and the shape of the day is the same: students enter a class for their year, a panel scores each piece against a short written set of criteria, and the highest scorers in each year group are named winner and runner-up.

• United Arab Emirates

Key facts

• Three individual art categories, each run in four school-year groups (Year 5-6, 7-9, 10-11 and 12-13): twelve classes in all
• Entries are individual only and open to boys and girls; no team or group work
• One printed judging table for every category: Creative thinking, Using materials in an efficient way, Clarity of idea in the completed work and Quality of final work, 25 marks each, 100 in total
• A two-hour limit applies to the Drawing and Painting school round only; Digital Art and Photography are submitted files with no time limit
• Winner and runner-up in each year group, no points for places, and fees installed as zero for you to set

Age groups

4

Competition items

3

Competitions

12

Grade bands

0

Rank awards

2

Age groups

Every candidate is placed into one of these groups by age, and competitions are run per group.

Year 5-6

9From

–

10To

Candidates aged 9 to 10 compete in this group

Year 7-9

11From

–

13To

Candidates aged 11 to 13 compete in this group

Year 10-11

14From

–

15To

Candidates aged 14 to 15 compete in this group

Year 12-13

16From

–

18To

Candidates aged 16 to 18 compete in this group

Competition items

The events themselves — each with the category it belongs to and how judges score it.

Drawing and Painting

ArtMarks

Digital Art

MultimediaMarks

Photography

MultimediaMarks

Frequently asked questions

Can I change this template after installing it?

Yes — installing it creates a fully configured, live event, not a locked package. Every age group, competition item, rule and scoring setting can be edited afterwards to match exactly what your event actually needs.

Do I need technical knowledge to set this up?

No. Installing a template does the setup work for you; you only need to review the details (dates, unit or house names) and open registration.

Want the fuller picture first? See our guide to painting and drawing competition judging criteria guide.