Member Article

Winners of prestigious children's writing competition to be announced at Broughton Hall Festival

Judging has just been completed in the largest and most prestigious children’s writing competition ever held in in Yorkshire.

The competition, part of the inaugural Broughton Hall Children’s Literature Festival, attracted entries from more than 100 primary and secondary schools across Yorkshire.

Each schools submitted their four best stories from both Years 3 and 4 and Years 5 and 6, with the judges receiving 800 high-quality entries.

The competition was the brainchild of ex-teacher Trevor Wilson, the organiser of the Broughton Hall Children’s Literature Festival. It was sponsored by Bradford Grammar School.

The judging was done by an experienced panel led by Yvonne Lang, the ex-Head Librarian at Ermysted’s Grammar School, Skipton. The winners will be announced at the Children’s Literature Festival in September.

Yvonne explained: “The winning entries were of the highest quality - imaginative, creative and very mature in their use of descriptive language. The variety and demonstration of such vivid imaginations has been a pleasure and I am really proud to see how much writing talent exists within the young people of Yorkshire.

“I have read everything from someone shrinking to discover a swimming pool full of lemonade, naughty fairies being tamed by Little Mix, a lot of alien invasions and, rather worryingly, an alien who ate books and librarians!

“We have had horror, crime, fantasy and comedy as well as some lovely thoughtful pieces containing all sorts of moral messages such as the importance of friendship, accepting those who are different, protecting the planet, being grateful for what we have and even a tale about how we first domesticated the cat.

“It has been a real pleasure to take part and we have had some wonderful feedback from schools about their students’ enthusiasm for the project,” said Yvonne.

Trevor Wilson commented: “We are delighted that Bradford Grammar School, the leading independent school in the north of England, is sponsoring this prestigious event and we are looking forward to unveiling the very best in creative writing in our region at the Children’s Literature at Broughton Hall in September.

“Every school that enters will have at least one chosen winner and the lucky 200 winners will have their story published in a real book.

“All chosen finalists will be invited to attend the Broughton Hall Festival on Saturday 29 or Sunday 30 September 2018 to find out who will be the overall winner. As part of the prize they will be invited to attend one of our top author shows. Following the show we will announce the top six entries.

“The top six stories will then be read out by some of the leading children’s authors in the country before the overall winner, the Young Yorkshire Writer of the Year 2018, is finally announced. The overall winner will receive a year’s supply of books and books for his/her school library plus a free author visit to his/her school, while the other five finalists will win books both for themselves and for their school,” added Trevor.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Robert Beaumont .