The competition was set up by our Vocational Committee in 2016 in the hope that it will inspire local youngsters to unleash their writing talents and will encourage and improve creativity.
Entries were invited from all the primary schools within the Canterbury area. Under the competition rules the children were required to write an original, interesting and imaginative story with a Christmas theme, unaided and in their own handwriting. The story needed to be neatly presented on one side of A4 paper and comprise around 100 words; it could also be decorated. The stories were judged separately for each of the six national curriculum primary school years.
Schools were requested to undertake some initial selection of entries and to submit the best three stories in each year. Quality and range of expression, spelling, grammar and handwriting were all taken in to account during judging.
“We were amazed at the quality of entries submitted,” said Rtn Alan Mepstead, Chair of our Vocational Committee. Entries were so good that the judge, Mrs Sharon Carey of Crofton Primary School in Orpington, found she had a very difficult job deciding the winners.
Overall winners were awarded a prize of book tokens to the value of £20.00 and the runners-up a prize of book tokens to the value of £15.00. Winning entries came from Blean Primary School, St Johns Primary School, and Kent College Junior School.
Over recent weeks President Sharon Jordan and Alan Mepstead have had the very pleasant task of visiting all the winning schools and presenting the prizes to the winners in person at their school assemblies.
Our congratulations to the three schools on their winning entries and our thanks to staff that helped with the competition. Thanks also go to Mrs Carey for the time and care she took in judging the entries.
Picture: President Sharon Jordan and Chair of our Vocational Commitee Alan Mepstead with winners from Blean Primary School. Picture credit: Blean Primary School.
