Tag: children;s writing competition

BBC’s 500 Words competition winners announced

The winners of the UK’s most successful children’s writing competition, 500 Words, have been unveiled on World Book Day® in a special episode of The One Show – 500 Words with The One Show – on BBC One and iPlayer.

From thousands of talented entries, six exceptional young authors who submitted their stories to the BBC’s 500 words competition were crowned last week at the Grand Final in Buckingham Palace, with their identities kept secret until the big reveal on today’s special edition of The One Show.

Her Majesty the Queen invited Romesh Ranganathan and a host of celebrity readers including Hugh Bonneville, Oti Mabuse, Luke Evans, Olivia Dean, Tom Hiddleston and star of Matilda, Alisha Weir, to Buckingham Palace for the final event which opened with a special performance of ‘Pure Imagination’ from ‘Wonka’, courtesy of Warner Bros. Pictures, followed by ‘When I Grow Up’ performed by the West End cast of Matilda The Musical.

All the excitement from entire event, including all the live performances by celebrity readers of the winning stories, will be available to watch on CBBC at 4pm Friday 8 March.

Speaking at the Grand Final, Her Majesty The Queen said: “In the three years that we have been without this wonderful competition, I think we have realised how much we have missed it.

“Over the years, it has actually turned into half a billion words that have been written, typed, scribbled and tumbled onto thousands of pages by children across the UK, read by an army of volunteers and then sent to Oxford University Press to form the biggest collection of children’s writing in the world.

“That means that between you, you have created more than a million stories of thought-provoking adventure for future generations to study and enjoy. Thank you to everybody who has taken part in 500 Words – it is a huge pleasure to have you back.”

BBC Head of Education, Helen Foulkes said: “It’s incredible that we received almost 44,000 entries – the calibre of stories submitted this year have been exceptionally high.

“500 Words is all about encouraging children from across the UK to enjoy writing and let their imaginations run wild, without fear of spelling, punctuation or grammar. Our hope is that every child that entered continues to fall in love with writing.”

The six winners were chosen from two age group categories, ages 5-7 and 8-11 with each consisting of gold, silver and bronze awards.

500 Words Gold Winners

  • The GOLD Winner for 5-7 age group is Evan from London, his story, Message in a Bottle was read by singer Olivia Dean. Evan said: “I like writing descriptions, letters and diaries.”
  • The GOLD Winner for the 8-11 age group is Olive from London, her story, Cellmate was read by actor, Tom Hiddleston. Olive said: “It came from the depths of my brain, I never knew what was down there, now I do!”

500 Words Silver Winners

  • The SILVER Winner for the 5-7 age group is Clara from Leicestershire, her story, Pony With a Coat on – Solving Crimes was read by Matilda star, Alisha Weir.
  • The SILVER Winner for the 8-11 age group was Spencer from Glasgow, his story, The Scottish Gangsta was read by Hugh Bonneville.

500 Words Bronze Winners

  • The BRONZE Winner for the 5-7 age group was Henry from Oxfordshire, his story The Alien and the Purple Planet was read by Oti Mabuse.
  • The BRONZE Winner for the 8-11 age group was Aaron from Oxfordshire, his story A Very Important Lesson was read by actor and singer, Luke Evans.

The 500 Words judges included Sir Lenny Henry, Frank Cottrell-Boyce, Francesca Simon, Charlie Higson, and Malorie Blackman, who were chaired by BBC Breakfast’s Jon Kay.

Each of the finalist’s stories are available to read now on the BBC Teach website, alongside audio versions which have been voiced specially by BBC Radio Drama Actors

World Book Day: BBC relaunches 500 Words children’s writing competition

The UK’s most successful children’s writing competition, 500 Words, will relaunch this September, supported by BBC Teach with BBC Breakfast hosting the initiative for 2023. 

The announcement comes on World Book Day.

The BBC is now searching for teachers and librarians across the UK to register their interest in joining the judging panel to help choose the best entries later this year.

500 Words is a UK wide competition to find the most talented young writers. Since it was first launched by Chris Evans on The Radio 2 Breakfast Show in 2011 and continued by Zoe Ball until 2020, the competition has received over a million stories written by children, generating more than 440 million words to date.

Once again, the competition will enjoy the support of Her Majesty The Queen Consort. Her Majesty has a longstanding commitment to championing literacy and creative writing, and has supported the 500 Words competition every year since 2015.

In a recent conversation with BookTrust and Joseph Coelho, the Children’s Laureate, to mark this year’s World Book Day, The Queen Consort spoke about the importance of creative writing competitions like 500 Words and Her Majesty’s ‘joy’ that the competition is being relaunched. 

Joseph Coelho said: “Putting pen to paper doesn’t have to be that scary, which is what is so wonderful about 500 Words. There are no rules!”

The Queen Consort replied: “There’s no rules – they can sit down and write exactly what they like.”

New for 2023, World Book Day ambassador Sir Lenny Henry will be making his debut on the 500 Words judging panel, alongside the original judges – award-winning and best-selling authors Frank Cottrell-Boyce, Francesca Simon, Charlie Higson and former Children’s Laureate Malorie Blackman. 

Lenny will also read a special CBeebies Bedtime Story to celebrate World Book Day on 2 March. He will read Luna Loves World Book Day by Joseph Coelho, a story about a little girl’s excitement to dress up as her favourite book character, meet an author and illustrator and buy a new book with her book token.

The grand final will take place on World Book Day 2024, where 50 finalists will be invited to a star-studded event at a special location. Previous locations for the final have included Windsor Castle, Hampton Court and the Tower of London. 

With a focus on primary schools, the entries will be split into two age categories – 5-7 year olds and 8-11 year olds. 

Chief Content Officer at BBC, Charlotte Moore said: “We are thrilled to once again host the 500 Words competition and help discover a range of young authors with big imaginations. It is fantastic that the competition will be supported by The Queen Consort and we do hope teachers and librarians across the UK will get involved in this chance to help find the writers of tomorrow.”

Author and 500 Words judge, Charlie Higson said: “I am so excited to take part in this year’s 500 Words! We can’t wait to see what stories today’s kids want to tell. I know that my fellow judges and I will be laughing, crying, gasping and I’m sure left feeling amazed at all the talent on display.”

BBC Breakfast presenter, Jon Kay said: “We are delighted to be championing 500 Words and look forward to the no doubt stellar entries from talented, aspiring young writers up and down the country that are sure to follow in due course.”

Teachers and librarians can find out more information about volunteering to take part in the first round of judging  at BBC Teach. The Reading Agency will then whittle down the entries into a top 50, which are then passed onto the final judging panel who will select the bronze, silver and gold winners in each of the two age categories. The competition is focused on imagination and creativity, rather than spelling, punctuation or grammar, encouraging children of all abilities to enter. 

To help raise awareness in schools, encourage as many entries from young creative minds as possible and provide further support for teachers, BBC Teach will run the competition in partnership with World Book Day, The Reading Agency, Libraries Connected, The Publishers Association and Oxford University Press. 

A host of famous faces will read out the six winning stories, with narrators from previous years including the likes of Dua Lipa, Benedict Cumberbatch and Jodie Whittaker.