FAQs

You can submit your proposal form from Tuesday 25th March 2025.

We will review your plans and reply to you within 10 working days. You can begin your Award activities as soon as approval has been received. 

No, we will not accept proposals retrospectively.

Please submit your plans using the online proposal form. We will review your plans and reply to you within 10 working days. You can begin your Award activities as soon as approval has been received.

No, you may wish to draft your proposal in Word however all proposal forms must be completed online

For now we are offering the Wild Places Guardian Award (previously Discovery level).

We aim to redesign the Wild Places Protector during 2026 and the Wild Places Champion after that. These levels will undergo more significant changes, which will be communicated in due course.

You do not need to attend mandatory training, however we are offering free online workshops introducing the new redesigned Award and process. You can find details of these on the February update.

The Award is ideally suited for those at later stage of primary education and beyond (Year 4 and above in England and Wales, and Primary 5 in Scotland). We find that a learning age of 8 is a logical guideline. The John Muir Award isn’t suitable for nursery or lower primary level groups.

Adults are welcome – indeed actively encouraged – to get involved too, alongside young people, students, or in their own groups.

There will be a Welsh language version of the handbook, record books and certificates. Unfortunately, we are unable to accept forms written in Welsh as there are no Award Officers who speak Welsh at this time. 

We would ask for your patience with communications.  If you have an urgent question that is not answered above, you can contact us via award@johnmuirtrust.org and we’ll respond as soon as we can.