If you want to try something a little different with your students, you might want to enter them for the Stephen Spender Prize for poetry in translation, run by the Stephen Spender Memorial Trust and The Times newspaper. You’ll have to be quick, though, as the deadline for entries is 28 May, 2010.

The prize is open to anyone, but there are two special categories for under-18s and under-14s, both of which have cash prizes on offer. All you have to do is translate a poem from any language – classical or modern – into English. If you’re chosen as a winner, you might even find your work published in The Times.

Stephen Spender was himself a fine translator of poetry, and this annual prize has been set up to encourage and stimulate a new generation of literary translators.

So, if you’re feeling creative, or know a budding young linguist who might be, then visit the website and get scribing!