One of our learners has been selected for the second stage of the BBC’s 500 Words creative writing competition- we’re now thrilled to announce that Huzaifa, a year 6 pupil at North Walsall Primary Academy, has been shortlisted as a finalist!
Huzaifa’s story, titled ‘The Clockmaker’s Secret’, was selected from around 5000 longlisted submissions judged by the Reading Agency.
Huzaifa will be among 50 finalists will be invited to go to a glamorous grand final at Buckingham Palace in February this year, where the bronze, silver and gold winners in each category will have their stories read out by celebrities. There are also lots of prizes to be won – each winner will take home a bundle of books and the gold winners also win 500 books for their school library. Not only that, the winning stories will receive an original illustration from Dapo Adeola, Nigel Parkinson, Lydia Monks, Momoko Abe, Rob Biddulph or Yasmeen Ismail.
As well as fostering a love of reading and writing in children across the country, the 500 Words competition is playing an important role in children’s language research.
In the 13 years the competition has been running, a collection of almost one million stories has been amassed and shared with the BBC’s partners at the Oxford University Press. Findings from their research are helping to develop understanding of children’s interests and the language they use, which helps inform the way English is taught in schools.
Huzaifa’s dad offered his congratulations to NWPA and said it was “a proud moment for all of us”. He’s already bought Huzaifa a new suit for the occasion!