General News
Opportunities for Young Writers
Over the course of many years, our young writers here at Old Hall have had great success when entering writing competitions outside of school and we are very keen to continue this long-standing tradition. We have already begun this journey, when six of our gifted writers in Years 5 and 6 were invited to the finals of the Sir Phillip Sidney essay competition at Shrewsbury School where all entrants were highly commended with one coming away with the top Year 5 prize!
I would like to tell you all about the up-coming opportunities that our young writers could become involved in. I would love to dedicate every writing lesson to them all if I could but I’m hoping some of these might spark your interest for having a go at home. I’m more than happy to take a look at entries or to offer advice.
Take a look and see if any take your fancy!
UK-RAS is running ‘Once Upon a Robot‘ – an up to 800-word short story competition for 7-11-year-olds in the UK. Children are invited to write a story – in any genre – involving a robot. The closing date is 24th April.
https://www.ukras.org.uk/school-robot-competition/write
Author of Tomorrow – run by the Wilbur and Niso Smith Foundation, the Author of Tomorrow prize aims to find adventure writers of the future. Young people under 21 can submit entries between 1500 and 5000 words (under 500 words for primary-aged pupils). The prizes are £1000 for the 16-21 age group, £100 and £150 in book tokens for the 12-15 age group, and £100 and £150 in book tokens for the 11 and under age group. The closing date is 29th April.
https://www.wilbur-niso-smithfoundation.org/awards/author-of-tomorrow-2019
Celebration Day writing competition – entrants are invited to write 250 words (primary) or 500 words (secondary) to tell the story of an inspirational person they know. There are five age categories: 5-7; 8-10; 11-13; 14-16; 17-18 & teachers. Deadline is TBC at present.
https://theday.co.uk/celebration-day-writing-competition/
The Lewis Carroll society is running a competition that includes categories for up to 16 and 16-20-year-olds who invite young writers to create a missing chapter of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland or Through the Looking-Glass. Full details are on the website link and the competition closes on 3rd July.
Atom Learning’s Young Author Award 2022 offers 7-9-year-olds and 10-11 year-olds the chance to win a trip to Disneyland Paris. Children can enter fiction stories of up to 500 words inspired by the theme “A Day That Changed The World”. There’s also a free creative writing activity pack to download. The closing date is 31st August.
https://atomlearning.com/young-author-award
I really hope you talented young writers out there have spotted a competition that you would like to enter! Remember, I’m always here to offer advice and support and I can’t wait to hear about the events that you get involved in. Good luck!
