Therefore, we have decided to absorb these additional costs for the
primary and Discovery Awards and not pass it along to educators. So, we’re not increasing the costs! Fees for Star and SuperStar Awards will remain at £1 (VAT inclusive) per pupil. However, for us to be able to keep the price this low and still be able to cover our costs, we have had to make some changes to the offer.
At the moment, when pupils earn a Star or SuperStar Award they receive a certificate and a badge. However, from 1 September 2024, following some
research and feedback from teachers about what you and your children value
about CREST, we will no longer be giving badges as part of the Star and SuperStar offer. If you are interested in purchasing additional badges, please email crest@britishscienceassociation.org as this is something we are considering offering in the future.
Children will still receive a
quality CREST Award certificate from the British Science Association that you
can personalise with their name. All Star and Superstar resources will also
remain free to access and download.
We will also be raising the minimum order for primary CREST Awards from five to ten, also starting from 1 September. These activities are often done with a full class, so hopefully this change won’t impact you too much.
Discovery CREST Awards
Similar to primary Awards, we wanted to avoid raising the fee per student if possible, especially as Discovery projects are often run with whole classes and the students work in groups.
So again, we have kept the Discovery fee at its current rate of £3 (VAT inclusive) per student. To allow us to keep the price this low, we will be setting a minimum order of five from 1 September 2024.
CREST Awards for secondary-aged students
From 1 January 2025, the fees for secondary Awards – Bronze, Silver, and Gold CREST Awards will be increasing. This is in part due to having to charge VAT on CREST Awards which we cannot absorb for the secondary awards. It is also due to rising costs, especially for
our assessment and moderation processes.
We understand that this is not welcome news – we know that secondary teachers are working hard on small budgets to help students find where their passions and aptitudes lie so they can make the best decisions now to set them up for their futures.
Running CREST projects can make a real difference to students at this age, and we’ve heard from secondary teachers about the pride and satisfaction they feel seeing students, particularly those from groups and backgrounds underrepresented in STEM, flourish.
We would prefer to keep the costs permanently low, as we have done for over a decade, however an increase is necessary for us to be able to cover our rising costs and still offer you a quality product, as well as pay our assessors fairly.
The new fee for a Bronze Award will be £6 (VAT inclusive) per student, an increase of just £1 to reflect the necessary inclusion of VAT.
The fees for Silver and Gold Awards will be increasing by an amount in addition to the VAT increase. A key reason for this is that, as Silver and Gold projects are highly detailed, in-depth pieces of work, we send them to expert external assessors to ensure students are getting high quality feedback. We are committed to paying our assessor a fair wage, and as this rises, so do our costs.
From 1 January 2025, the fee for Silver Awards will be £15 per student. The new Gold Award fee will be £30 per student.
International CREST Awards fees
International fees for CREST Awards will also be increasing from 1 September 2024. Again, we have tried to keep fees as low as possible, but have unfortunately had to raise them slightly to keep up with the administrative costs.
The price changes are detailed in the table below. As the fee is rising for Star and SuperStar Awards, and they are more costly than UK-based Awards, we will still be offering badges along with the certificates.
| Changes from 1 September 2024* |
| Fee increasing from £4 to £5. Minimum order of ten |
| Fee increasing from £6.50 to £7.50 Minimum order of ten |
| Fee increasing from £10 to £12.50. Minimum order of ten. |
| Fee increasing from £20 to £25. |
| Fee increasing from £35 to £40.
|