Myths and Legends: A Classics Competition

Myths and Legends is a FREE outreach classics competition which has run for over 70 years at the University of Leeds, and is a celebration of Classics, Reading and Performance. The competition is aimed at Key Stage 3 students (year 7-9) and is a great opportunity to introduce Classics to school students already familiar with English, History and Drama, highlighting the links to their current subjects and developing their oracy/public speaking skills in an exciting way.

The competition for 2026 will be officially opening on November 17th 2025. A full timeline of the competition, and a teacher handbook can be found below. 

This programme is generously supported by The Classical Association.

Read the privacy notice for this project.  

17th November 2025 - Myths & Legends: A Classics Competition opens!

Key Stage 3 students are invited to choose one of the categories, read up on the corresponding text and/or mythical characters and prepare their competition entries. Teachers will be encouraged to support students whilst they work on their entries over the winter months. Categories can be found in the teacher handbook.

23:59pm 2nd March 2026 - Competition Entry Deadline 

Teachers are required to submit their class' entries by this deadline. At this point only written scripts from students need to be submitted.

12th March 2026 - Finalists of the competition are announced

After all submissions have been judged by our panel of Academics at the University, they will shortlist a number of students to go through as finalists to the competition.

31st March 2026 - Confidence building workshop (online)

The student finalists will be invited to an online workshop based on public speaking and confidence building, to support students in turning their written scripts into an in-person presentation ready for the competition final.

30th April 2026 - Campus Final Day

All student finalists, their teacher(s) and their school peers will be invited to the University of Leeds campus to speak/perform their competition entry in front of a panel of University of Leeds academic judges, who will make their decisions and announce our winners! The Campus final day will also include enrichment activities for all students to gain an insight of what it is like to study at the University of Leeds.

My School pupils developed their performance techniques but also sparked an interest in the classics. Also, it prompted conversations about what they want to pursue at university”

My students saw a wider community of people interested in the ancient world. Building confidence in public speaking/performance. Gaining a first insight into University life.

It was a brilliant chance for the students to see the university and get an understanding of what options there are at uni. A lot have said uni seems great and are excited to start!

[My students gained] A greater understanding of where classics can take them and of university life. Confidence in their abilities and passion for classics.

- Participating teachers in 2024/25